Saturday, January 16, 2010

Two Decades and a Score



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 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.




This poem, Invictus, is the poem that helped Nelson Mandela to persevere during his tribulation in prison. For those of you who don't know, Nelson Mandela survived for two decades and a score on Robben Island.




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