English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 741. Invictus |
| | | William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) |
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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. | |
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| In the fell clutch of circumstance | 5 |
| I have not winced nor cried aloud. | |
| Under the bludgeonings of chance | |
| My head is bloody, but unbowed. | |
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| Beyond this place of wrath and tears | |
| Looms but the Horror of the shade, | 10 |
| And yet the menace of the years | |
| Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. | |
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| It matters not how strait the gate, | |
| How charged with punishments the scroll, | |
| I am the master of my fate; | 15 |
| I am the captain of my soul. | |
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