InVictus ::

Saturday, 04.06.2011
11:28am
Rain.
.

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 the 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.

(William Ernest Henley)

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         "Invictus" is a short poem by English poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). It was written in 1875 and first published in 1888 in Henley's Book of Verses, where it was the fourth in a series of poems entitled Life and death (Echoes). It originally bore no title; early printings contained only the dedication To R.T.H.B.--- a reference to Robert Thomas Hamilton Bruce (1846-1899), a successful Scottish flour merchant and baker who was also a literary patron. The familiar title 'Invictus' (Latin for "unconquered") was added by Arthur Quiller-Couch when he included the poem in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900). 

        

          At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only one to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. In the 1867 he would be successfully pass the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 18875 he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed. Despite his ability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life  until the age of 53.

(Source: C n S + Wiki.chan).. :D