Invictus

Out of the night that covers me

Black as a pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever God may be

For my unconquerable soul..

In the fell clutch of circumstances

I have not winced or cried aloud

Under the bludgeoning 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 master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul

-William Ernest Henley-