klr@hadron.UUCP (Kurt L. Reisler) (01/30/86)
This was left on one of my FIDONET BBS in response to the request for thoughts on the shuttle tragedy. TO: Sysop on 109/74 From: Lloyd Schwartz 29 Jan 86 20:32:21 SUBJECT: Challenger Demise For those who did not identify President Reagan's moving poetic closing literary allusion, the following original text of the WWII flier's piece will be appropriate: "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 sunlit silence. Hov'ring 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." What could be a better tribute, and memorial, to those who died in Space?