Invictus

                           by William Ernest Henley 

Out of the night that covers me
Black as a pit from pole to pole
I think whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul

In the failed clutch of circumstance,
I have not wenced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeny of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how straight the gate
How charged with punishment the scroll
I am the Master of my fate
I am the Captain of my soul