Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

I'll give this guy the award for moxie, though misdirected.  Talks big, but I doubt he can back it up when the chips are down, as they eventually will be...well, he's dead, so they already are.  I wonder what he is saying now...

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.

Henley, William Ernest. “Invictus” from One Hundred and One Famous Poems, compiled by Roy J. Cook. Contemporary Books, Chicago.1958 Page 95.