Invictus

William Ernest Henley · Written 1875; published 1888

Catalog grade guidance: 7–12 — Short, but its stoic claim needs mature discussion against Christian teaching.

16 content lines · 103 words · Est. recitation about 1 min (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: W. E. Henley, A Book of Verses, second edition (London: David Nutt, 1889; copy issued in New York by Scribner & Welford), “Life and Death (Echoes)” IV, pp. 56–57 (Internet Archive page images, leaves n79–n80); compared with Project Gutenberg #1568 (Henley, Poems, 1907).Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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.