I had to read this poem multiple times to let the dark in it sink in and place myself in the writers shoes.
William Ernest Henley, was a magnificent poet and mastermind in his time. One of my favorite quotes by him is 'Men may scoff, and men may pray, but they pay every pleasure with a pain.'
When I read this poem for the first time there was a gloomy affect to it; something dark that sits in all lines of this poem, but a darkness that one may find comfort in.
I enjoyed it and I tried to max out all the feelings given in this critical poem. It sets a shadowy overcast yet in its own bleak way it has such a mystic feel to it.
I hope you all enjoy the poem and find the beauty in it as I did.
Invictus by William Ernest Henley
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.