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

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.

The poem which inspired Nelson Mandela while he was a political prisoner.

It was written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley a seventeen year old youth who fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. The disease progressed to his foot and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. The Latin word "invictus translates to "unconquered" in English.