Poetry for Steadiness

By William Ernest Henley

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.


This poem at times is interpreted as a slogan: one is in control “if strong enough”; “I am the master” read as a statement of dominance or superiority, and trying to ignore pain or deny suffering–i.e., “stay strong and it won’t affect you.” However, what Henley is really getting at is refusing to surrender to inner authority. Like the Stoics, Henley is saying that we cannot control life’s outcomes.

Listen to the poem read aloud here.