Invictus is a short poem by an English poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). It was also known to be a favorite of a former South African President, Nelson Mandela. This year, it was again brought into world attention as a themeline of a worldwide hit movie "Invictus" - a movie based on a true story of how former President Nelson Mandela used a popular sport of Rugby to re-unite the people of his nation.
As a poem, it tells of how man overcomes any form or circumtance of hardship or adversity without the feel of fear and defeat. Invictus means unconquered or undefeated.
"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."
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