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 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
punishments the scroll.
I am the master
of my fate;
I am the captain
of my soul.
~William Ernest Henley~