Invictus

This week I watched a wonderful movie, Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as the captain of the South African rugby team.  This is a powerful story, beautifully told.  According to the film, one of Mandela's sources of inspiration during his 27 years in prison was the short poem Invicutus by the English poet William Ernest Henley.  I hear this poem as a call to courage and to be true to one's  self.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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.