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Inside Out investigates mystery of evocative poem
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A 大象传媒 investigation may have solved the 65-year-old mystery surrounding one of
the world's best-known poems.
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High Flight, a remarkable evocation of the joy of flight, was written by 19-year-old American John Gillespie Magee, a wartime Spitfire pilot with the Royal
Canadian Air Force.
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He was killed in 1941 when his plane collided in mid-air
over Lincolnshire.
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His poem, written on the back of an envelope, was sent home to his parents
weeks before the crash and gained fame when it was picked up by the American
media after his death.
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President Ronald Reagan quoted from it in his broadcast to the nation following
the Challenger shuttle disaster and it was used as a recruiting tool by the US
Air Force.
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Now researchers from the 大象传媒's Inside Out programme - 大象传媒 One Yorks and Lincs,
Friday 23 February, 7.30pm - have discovered the poem may have been
inspired by a little-known side-effect of oxygen starvation.
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They have established that a few weeks before the famous lines - in which Magee
writes how he "slipped the surly bonds of earth" and "touched the face of God" - his Spitfire suffered oxygen failure.
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Magee wrote in his logbook of experiencing symptoms of hypoxia - oxygen
starvation - before he safely descended below 10,000 feet where the air is
breathable.
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Hypoxia can produce sensations of elation, often provoking spontaneous
laughter, confusion and changed colour perception.
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Some aircrew have also
described out-of-body experiences.
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These can be fatal when suffered by the pilot of a high performance plane - but
they are all effects that could explain the imagery on the poem, which is
accepted to be his finest work.
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Magee's brother, Hugh, told the 大象传媒: "I have not head this theory before but I
really think you're onto something there.
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"Poets have often used drink or drugs
to see the world in different ways and this makes sense."
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Magee was killed in December 1941 when his plane - based at Wellingore, near
Sleaford - collided with an Airspeed Oxford trainer near RAF Cranwell.
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He is buried in a country churchyard at nearby Scopwick where an annual parade
by British, Canadian and US airmen marks the anniversary of his death.
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The Inside Out investigation is part of a week or programming on 大象传媒 Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire, which includes special reports on 大象传媒 Radio Lincolnshire and
Look North.
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Members of the county's aviation community - including the Red Arrows - have
also recorded a modern, online reading of High Flight which can be viewed at
bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire.
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To test the new theory, Inside Out put former Red Arrows pilot Dave Slow through a simulated flight to 25,000 feet without oxygen in the RAF's hypobaric
chamber at Henlow in Bedfordshire.
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He struggled to read the poem and was finally stumped by a shape-sorting puzzle
designed for two-year-olds before a doctor was forced to give him back his
oxygen mask.
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Afterwards, Slow - a former Harrier pilot who flew missions in the Balkans
conflict - said: "Suddenly it all makes sense. High Flight means a lot to most
pilots - I've lost count of how many funerals I have heard it read at.
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"It certainly feels like the way someone in a hypoxic state would see the
world.
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"I can't say I was moved to poetry but I can see how it would shape your
view of flying.
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"It's an intriguing theory about something that's always been a
bit of a mystery."
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Lemn Sissay, a modern poet who is the son of an airline pilot, has made a study
of the poem.
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He says it still rates as a truly great piece of work but was
clearly inspired by an intense experience - previously attributed to Magee's
first flight in a Spitfire Mark V.
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Sissay added: "Magee wrote this poem at the age when most of us were chasing
girls or squeezing spots. Something must have inspired a teenager to have such
a powerful insight."
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But RAF medical experts say the poem may also have been inspired by another
physiological effect of flight - the Breakthrough Phenomenon, only discovered
in the Fifties and often known as the Big Hand.
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This makes pilots feel remote from their aircraft, often imagining themselves
looking down at themselves in the cockpit, with feelings of doom or
overwhelming joy.
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Air Commodore Bill Coker, head of the RAF's Aviation Medicine Centre and a
poetry enthusiast, told the 大象传媒: "I think this is a more likely theory though
you cannot rule out hypoxia."
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