Invictus by William E Henley, an unconquerable soul!

This is a poem that I love. Nelson Mandela would recite this poem to himself while in Prison on Robbin Island to remind himself that the prison guards would not break his spirit or soul.

 

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods maybe
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 punishment the scroll
I am the Master of my fate
I am the Captain of my soul.

~William E Henley