Poetry Project - Invictus

Albert Ernest Markes, Ship at Sea

This poem is a favorite of one of my best friends. Whenever I read it, I think of her. She has a strength of character and rightness that I very much admire, and she doesn't take any crap from anybody. I have great regard for people who can walk through life with such certainty, particularly because I am always second-guessing and finding myself in the throes of doubt.


Invictus
by William Ernest Henley

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 full 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 strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.