The following poem was the foremost piece of literature that sweeten the soul of Nelson Mandela during the most bitter of times. Because if these words and his heart of forgiveness, he arose victorious against his enemies each day and one day was their strong leader, with no trace of bitterness in his soul. When they tried to break him, he only healed more soundly. when they tried to make him invisible, he became one of the most known names of our modern times. When he was told, it can never be, he took the challenge and made it even more. He never feared to dream, dreams bigger than himself. He sought inspiration in all aspects of life; to keep him always moving and looking forward and never accepting stagnancy.
INVICTUS
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
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Response to Invictus
Art thou in truth? Then what of him
Who bought thee with his blood?
Who plunged into devouring seas
And snatched thee from the flood?
Who bore for all our fallen race
What none but him could bear,
The God who died that man might live,
And endless glory share?
Of what avail thy vaunted strength,
Apart from his vast might?
Pray that his Light may pierce the gloom,
That thou mayest see aright.
Men are as bubbles on the wave,
As leaves upon the tree.
Thou, captain of thy soul, forsooth!
Who gave that place to thee?
Free will is thine — free agency,
To wield for right or wrong;
But thou must answer unto him
To whom all souls belong.
Bend to the dust that head unbowed
Small part of Life’s great whole!
And see in him, and him alone,
The Captain of thy soul.
~Orson F. Whitney
(Improvement Era, April 1926, 611)
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