Skyline operations

[sagehen]

>W.H.Auden's poem 'Missing' contains the following lines:
>
>Heroes are buried who
>Did not believe in death
>And bravery is now
>Not in the dying breath
>But resisting the temptations
>To skyline operations.
>
>I have difficulty with the last line;
>
>I'd be delighted to know what does it mean, technically and generally, was
>it used before Auden (the poem in question was written in 1928) and in which
>context, was it used after Auden and in which context etc. Anything that can
>be found out by the usual for this list 'explore-the-phrase' procedure.
>
>There must be something on this in Auden criticism, but I have no access
>currently to any book... etc., the usual whining about not having anything
>handy... :)
~~~~~~~~~~
The play, "The Ascent of F6,"  suggests a preoccupation with  a similar
theme, though it was written some half-dozen years later.
A. Murie