Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole.
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of fate,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the shadow of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Invictus
By William Ernest Henley