Captain of My Soul

Once, I was ignorant of poems and poetry.
For me, all those sing song rhymes belongs to the world of primary school. :p
However, 2 years back, my eyes were finally opened to the beauty of poetry. Every poem tells you of a story: happiness, joy, love, sadness , sufferings, madness and even death.

Words that traversed the world and touched the hearts of so many people. One of the poets that I always like to read is William Ernest Henley.

William Ernest Henley (1849-1907) was a British poet and critic who suffered from Tuberculosis of the bone and had a below knee amputation. He wrote this poem in reaction to his fate and in defiance to his suffering.

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

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings 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 gates
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul!
*****

Wonder how it feels to be really the captain of your own soul...