Invictus

1849 –

1903

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.

This poem is in the public domain.

We'll Go No More a-Roving

We'll go no more a-roving by the light of the moon. 
November glooms are barren beside the dusk of June. 
The summer flowers are faded, the summer thoughts are sere. 
We'll go no more a-roving, lest worse befall, my dear. 

We'll go no more a-roving by the light of the moon. 
The song we sang rings hollow, and heavy runs the tune. 
Glad ways and words remembered would shame the wretched year. 
We'll go no more a-roving, nor dream we did, my dear. 

We'll go no more a-roving by the light of the moon. 
If yet we walk together, we need not shun the moon.

William Ernest Henley

1893

O, Gather Me the Rose

O, gather me the rose, the rose,
   While yet in flower we find it,
For summer smiles, but summer goes,
   And winter waits behind it!

For with the dream foregone, foregone,
   The deed forborne for ever,
The worm, regret, will canker on,
   And time will turn him never.

So well it were to love, my love,
   And cheat of any laughter
The death beneath us and above,
   The dark before and after.

The myrtle and the rose, the rose,
   The sunshine and the swallow,
The dream that comes, the wish that goes,
   The memories that follow!

William Ernest Henley

1874

Poems

Invictus

More by this poet

We'll Go No More a-Roving

O, Gather Me the Rose

Poems

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Invictus

More by this poet

We'll Go No More a-Roving

O, Gather Me the Rose

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