invictus

 Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole o pole,

I thank whatever god may be

For my unconquerable soul

In the clutch of circumstance

I have not winced or cried aloud

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My heart is bloody but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

looms but the horrors 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 punishment the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul.

                   William Henley