Saturday, May 7, 2011

Invictus



Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

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.



This woman, my wife, taught me the meaning of that poem, not by explaining it, but by showing me, every day, by example. She knows the fell clutch of circumstance, and has defeated it, and continues to defeat it, every day.

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