Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Ernest Henley. 18491903842. Invictus
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 | 5 |
I have not winced nor cried aloud. | |
Under the bludgeonings of chance | |
My head is bloody, but unbow’d. | |
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. | |
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. |