"I am the master of my fate..."

It’s been a busy week working in the hospital this week, so I decided to post one of my favorite poems. It’s by the English writer, William Ernest Henley and it's called "Invictus" (recited by the actor, Morgan Freeman here).  Henley suffered from tuberculosis that invaded his bone, requiring amputation of his left leg below the knee at the age of 12 years (incidentally, one of Henley's close friends was the author Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island - the character of Long John Silver was inspired in part by Henley).  Nelson Mandela is said to have recited the poem to his fellow prisoners while he was a incarcerated at Robben Island prison (depicted in the movie, Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, about the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Nelson Mandela, and the rugby player Francois Pienaar):

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.

I think the poem speaks for itself.