Sonnet To Rupert Brooke
by Paulette B Wright
Title
Sonnet To Rupert Brooke
Artist
Paulette B Wright
Medium
Photograph - Digital Fine Art Photograph
Description
My interpretation of Sonnet To Rupert Brooke by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
From wikipedia:
John Gillespie Magee was born in Shanghai, China, to an American father and a British mother, who both worked as Anglican missionaries. His father, John Magee Senior, was from a family of some wealth and influence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Magee Senior chose to become an Episcopal priest and was sent as a missionary to China. Whilst there he met his future wife, Faith Emmeline Backhouse, who came from Helmingham in Suffolk and was a member of the Church Missionary Society. Magee's parents married in 1921, and their first child, John Junior, was born 9 June 1922, the eldest of four brothers.
Magee began his education at the American School in Nanking in 1929. In 1931 he moved with his mother to the UK and spent the following four years at St. Clare, a boarding school for boys, near Walmer, in Kent.
He attended Rugby School from 1935 to 1939. He developed his poetry whilst at the school and in 1938 he won the school's Poetry Prize. He was deeply moved by the roll of honour of Rugby pupils who had fallen in the First World War. This list of the fallen included the celebrated war poet Rupert Brooke (1887–1915), whose work Magee greatly admired. Brooke had won the school poetry prize thirty-four years prior to Magee. The prize-winning poem by Magee referred to Brooke's burial at 11 o'clock at night in an olive grove on the Greek island of Skyros.
Magee joined the RCAF in October 1940 and received flight training in Ontario at No. 9 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School), located at RCAF Station St. Catharines (St. Catharines), and at No. 2 SFTS (Service Flying Training School) at RCAF Station Uplands (Ottawa). He passed his Wings Test in June 1941.
Shortly after his promotion to the rank of Pilot Officer, after having been awarded his wings, Magee was sent to Britain. He was posted to No. 53 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF Llandow, in Wales. After graduating from No. 53 OTU, Magee was assigned to No. 412 (Fighter) Squadron, RCAF, which was formed at RAF Digby on 30 June 1941, and where he became a qualified Spitfire pilot.
Magee was killed at the age of 19, while flying Spitfire coded VZ-H, serial number AD291. He had taken off with other members of 412 Squadron from RAF Wellingore (near Navenby & RAF Digby, and about three miles northwest of RAF Cranwell), which has now reverted to agriculture. The aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer from Cranwell, flown by Leading Aircraftman Ernest Aubrey Griffin. The two aircraft collided just below the cloud base at about 1,400 feet AGL, at 11:30, over the hamlet of Roxholme, which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in Lincolnshire. Magee was descending at high speed through a break in the clouds with three other aircraft.
At the inquiry afterwards a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open, and died on impact. Griffin was also killed.
Magee was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Scopwick in Lincolnshire, England. On his grave are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem High Flight. Part of the official letter to his parents read, "Your son's funeral took place at Scopwick Cemetery, near Digby Aerodrome, at 2.30pm, on Saturday, 13 December 1941, the service being conducted by Flight Lieutenant S. K. Belton, the Canadian padre of this Station. He was accorded full Service Honours, the coffin being carried by pilots of his own Squadron".
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June 12th, 2014
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Comments (2)
Karen Adams
These words are so beautiful and go so well with your lovely image....They both touch the soul...for those who mourn are alike in so many ways.....fv
Aurelio Zucco
Beautiful pairing of image and words...exceptional all around, Paulette! L/F
Paulette B Wright replied:
Thank you so very much, Aurelio! Magee's words touched me deeply and I wanted to convey them the way I felt them.