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
Fiends, 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.
William Ernest Henley (1849 – 1903)
Nitric Oxide said:
What is it about reading things through someone else’s viewpoint that provides such a fantastic perspective? There are some great “brain food” sites online and I feel like I just had a decent helping here checking out your blog. I actually ended up here via Yahoo when I had been doing some researching for a bit of course work which I have. Delighted that I stuck around and I am going to be certain to add your details to my bookmarks so i can read the stuff you write down the road. Enjoy the week.
Francis said:
There is something deeply profound about being asked to master your fate and captain your life! A responsibility so real that is smacks you in the face like those semi-invisible clear glass automatic doors at the supermarket.
How brilliant must it be to hit this realisation!
woozie_m said:
I think this one of the most powerful poems ever writtenright up there with If and law of the jungle by Kipling, Because i couldn’t stop for death by Dickinson, the Life of Man by Francis Bacon… to name but a few.
“In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance;
My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
Echoed my lil wayne(yes i quoted him “keep knocking but won’t knock me down”
Relentlessness…. the most admirable of traits.. anyway I am rambling now, in short… I like this poem