Invictus - William Ernest Henley | Eternal Poems

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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.

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AUTHOR:
William Ernest Henley was born on August 23, 1849 in Gloucester, England. He was a British poet, writer, critic and editor in late Victorian England. Henley wrote several books of poetry, but he is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus".

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ATTRIBUTION:
William Ernest Henley's portrait from Elliott & Fry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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