Assignment -

Read the poem "Invictus " Write a short essay, not to exceed two pages, arguing that you are the master of your fate or that your genes, your environment, and other factors place your fate outside of your control.

Poem - Invictus - William Ernest Henley 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.       

William Ernest Henley, born August 23, 1849, was an influential British poet, perhaps best known for his poem invictus (1875). He is the author of A Song of Speed (D Nutt, 1903). Hawthorn & Lavender with Other Verses (D. Nutt. 1901), and For England's Sake' Verses and Songs in Time of War (D Nun, 1900), among others. He died in Woking, England, on July 11, 1903.