Invictus

I just finished watching the film, Invictus, which follows the story of Nelson Mandela's first days as the President of the South Africa at the time that South Africa hosting the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The title of the film comes from a poem by William Ernest Henley that was written in 1875. In the film Mandela refers to this poem as what motivated him, when he was incarcerated in Roben Island Prison, to "stand when all he wanted to do was lie down".

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

Although in reality it was not this exact piece of writing that Mandela handed to the Captain of the South Africa Rugby team, Francois Pienaar, the poem itself deserves some attention. Definitely a wall hanger.