Invictus

I saw the trailer for Invictus staring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. It's about Nelson Mandela using the 1995 Rugby World Cup to unite post-apartheid South Africa. It is getting a lot of Oscar hype and since Clint Eastwood directed it, I'm sure it's going to be a monster.

Invictus is Latin for unconquered, and the title of a short poem written by William Ernest Henley. In the trailer Morgan Freeman recites the lines "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul". The words were pretty inspiring so I am sharing the poem with all of you.




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.