Astronaut Neil Armstrong on the moon. Photo: NASA.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared
And swung high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.— John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
I didn’t know until I saw this post, and then quickly checked a news site.
It’s a sad day for America when it loses one of its heroes.
Neil Armstrong was one of my heroes. Heck, all the astronauts were.
Dang.
Interplanetary bacon to the man who made the one small step.
“Neil Armstrong is my name,
Terra is my nation,
Deep space is my resting place,
The stars my destination.”
with apologies to Bester and Gully
I remember running all the way home from school so we did not miss the fist steps on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the embodiment of the American spirit. Rest in peace. Our nation has lost one of the best.
High Praise to one of the bravest men ever. Forgive my intrusion upon your monicker, but it is the only one that fits.
Didn’t Ronald Reagan quote some of that poem when the Challenger exploded in 1986? If I remember correctly he said “they slipped the surely bonds of earth and touched the face of God” in his speech from his office.
Yes, he did.
The author, for those that don’t know, was an American pilot in the RCAF, and was killed in a training crash in England on 11 December, 1941. He was 19.
“There were giants in the earth in those days…”
It’s alarming how many people on the twitters can’t believe he died right after they took away all his Tour de France wins and that he was way too young.
Bacon to you Mr. Armstrong who walked on the Moon without any illegal performance enhancing drugs.