William Ernest Henley - 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.

Invictus acted as a very strong message to the South African Leader, Nelson Mandela. Mandela was so inspired by this poem that he wrote it on a piece of scratch paper and kept it in his prison cell while he was incarcerated for 27 years. The movie Invictus presented more information on Mandela's thoughts of Henley's poem, as the movie is based on his life. Mandela even admitted that he probably would not have made it through the long years in prison if it weren't for the words of this English poet. Mandela was eventually released and then elected as South Africa's first post-Apartheid president