Invictus

I saw the movie Invictus the other night with one of my favourite friends. The movie was not what I expected, but was still incredibly inspiring (I think I expected it to be more political than it was).

The movie borrowed its name from a poem, the poem that Nelson Mandela drew on for inspiration throughout his imprisonment...and beyond. This poem was by far my favourite part of the whole movie; I had to come home and look it up ASAP just so I could soak up every word that I missed.

Enjoy.

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.

-William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)