Listen to the Invictus Poem
‘Invictus’ is Latin for ‘unconquered’ or ‘invincible’ and the title of a Victorian Poem by William Ernest Henley.
Published in 1888 the poem describes his strength in the face of adversity and that nothing was going to stop him.
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.