The poem comes straight from Henley's heart and tells about his indomitable spirit. At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot, and finally his one leg was amputated. "Invictus" was written while he was in hospital.
Here it goes:
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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