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
Postscript:
A gorgeous war-cry for spitting in the face of Fate (the capitalization somehow fitting in with the tone of the poem). Even though it seems a bit overwrought, there’s something very compelling about the poem.
The last two lines, of course, are the best-known and most quoted.
You can see a video of it being read out aloud here and here.
Tagged: defiance, fate, religion, William Ernest Henley