posted 12-28-2020 10:09 AM            

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

Where never lark nor even eagle flew;

posted 12-28-2020 10:52 AM               

The most authoritative transcription of the poem appears in the book "Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service" (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1989)...

Respectfully Quoted‘s entry for the poem notes the following of reprintings:

"The reprintings vary in punctuation, capitalization, and indentation from the original manuscript... Some portions are faded and difficult to read, but the version above follows Magee's as exactly as can be made out, following his pencilled note on another poem, "If anyone should want this please see that it is accurately copied, capitalized, and punctuated." Nearly all versions use "...even eagle," but to the editor’s careful scrutiny, it was "ever," formed exactly like the preceding "never."

posted 12-28-2020 03:59 PM            

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
...does that mean the Challenger Memorial is flawed?

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posted 12-29-2020 10:12 AM               

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Originally posted by David C:
Its selection by Reagan's speechwriter...

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The end of the speech involved a mystery.

As I worked, I had watched, over and over, the videotape of the astronauts walking that morning toward the shuttle in their space suits. Awkwardly, humorously, with heavy-gloved hands, they had waved goodbye. I remembered a poem I'd learned in the seventh grade in public school on Long Island — "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr., an American who'd volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940. In the poem he spoke of the joy of flying, of the sensation of breaking free from gravity, breaking "the surly bonds of earth."

I put that line at the end of the speech, but I knew that Reagan would say it only if he knew that poem, if it mattered to him.

I had a hunch he did. Did he?

When Reagan spoke, live from the big desk in the Oval Office, he said at the end, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them — this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved goodbye, and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.' "

He looked stricken. I learned later that he had thought, as he gave the speech, that it had not succeeded, didn't quite do what needed doing.

But by the next morning, something had shifted. The president called me. He told me he hadn't thought it had gone well but had concluded, after the reaction, that it did. He laughed and said Frank Sinatra had called him, and Frank didn't call after every speech!

He asked how I knew he knew the poem "High Flight." I said I didn't. He said he used to read it when he dropped off his daughter Patti at grade school. It was written on a plaque outside.

Neither of us could have imagined, when we first read that poem, what it would mean to us years later, on Jan. 28, 1986.

posted 12-29-2020 12:55 PM            

Where never lark, or even eagle flew —

posted 12-31-2020 08:49 AM            

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
Very surprisingly, both transcriptions wrongly use "nor" instead of "or." Parts of the original are faint, but there is no doubt that Magee wrote "or", not "nor."

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posted 01-05-2021 10:43 AM               

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
I recently found an online copy of the original manuscript version...

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posted 01-07-2021 09:44 AM               

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Originally posted by dtemple:
I believe parts of the P-51D/K were coated with silver paint if I recall correctly.

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