I saw this in the newspaper today - On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright took the first successful man-powered airplane flights, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. So in honor of Orville and Wilbur here's a poem I memorized in second or third grade and for some reason still remember.
Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright
Said Orville Wright to Wilbur Wright,
These birds are very trying.
I'm sick of hearing them cheep-cheep
About the fun of flying.
A bird has feathers, it is true.
That much I freely grant.
But must that stop us, W?"
Said Wilbur Wright, "It shan't."
And so they built a glider, first,
And then they built another.
—There never were two brothers more
Devoted to each other.
They ran a dusty little shop
For bicycle-repairing,
And bought each other soda-pop
And praised each other's daring.
They glided here, they glided there,
They sometimes skinned their noses.
—For learning how to rule the air
Was not a bed of roses—
But each would murmur, afterward,
While patching up his bro.
"Are we discouraged, W?"
"Of course we are not, O!"
And finally, at Kitty Hawk
In Nineteen-Three (let's cheer it!),
The first real airplane really flew
With Orville there to steer it!
—And kingdoms may forget their kings
And dogs forget their bites,
But not till Man forgets his wings
Will men forget the Wrights.
-Stephen Vincent Benet
