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 Henley
This is one of my new favourite poems. I love it so much. It hangs on the bulletin board in my classroom and there's something really touching, really... strong about this poem. The last verse always gives me goosebumps. The story about the poet is also really inspiring. He had tuberculosis of bone which spread to his foot. The doctors had no choice but to amputate it (whenever somone mentions the word amputee or amputate the Flagpole Sitta lyrics go through my head- they cut off my legs/now i'm an amputee/god damn you) when he was seventeen. He wrote this when he was recovering.
It's so powerful.
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