"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 7 July 2011

Invictus

This is a spectacular poem by William Ernest Henley written in 1875. The title means “Unconquered” in Latin. 
 
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.

************

 Alyson sent me this poem on Tuesday evening.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sleep Well !

Anonymous said...

Pressing the "Like" button!

Anonymous said...

What happened to yesterday's post about the room and walkers, and Wilson's sprawl and such?

Anonymous said...

It's a beautiful poem unlike some who wrap themselves in it.

Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh recited it before his execution.

My point is - not only heroes speak its words, so do villains.