<P> (To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example to us who follow, these lines are dedicated .) They that have climbed the white mists of the morning; They that have soared, before the world's awake, To herald up their foeman to them, scorning The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take; Some that have left other mouths to tell the story Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled, How they had thundered up the clouds to glory, Or fallen to an English field stained red . Because my faltering feet would fail I find them Laughing beside me, steadying the hand That seeks their deadly courage--Yet behind them The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land...Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly, Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow, Till the far dawn of Victory, know only Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now? </P> <P> Shortly after Magee's first combat action on November 8, 1941, he sent his family part of another poem, referring to it as "another trifle which may interest you". It is possible that the poem, Per Ardua, is the last that Magee wrote . There are several corrections to the poem, made by Magee, which suggest that the poem was not completed when he sent it . Per ardua ad astra ("Through adversity to the stars") is the motto of a number of Commonwealth air forces, such as the Royal Air Force, RAAF, RNZAF and the RCAF . It was first used in 1912 by the newly formed Royal Flying Corps . </P>

Reached out and touched the face of god video