Out of the night that covers me,

This is a poem written by William Earnest Henley in 1875. He suffered from tuberculosis and this poem is about being the master of one's own destiny no matter what life throws at you.

This poem inspired Nelson Mandela while he was in prison on Robben Island off Cape Town.

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.