Prison Diary 01 – Hell – Archer, Jeffrey

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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 or
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 (1849–1903)