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.

Any one who has seen the movie Invictus will remember this poem by the same name.The poem was written by William Ernest Henley.When Henley was 12 he suffered from tuberculosis of the bone which in later years reached his foot.At the age of 25 his foot was amputated right below the knee.Henley wrote this poem in these trying circumstances.The inspiration that lead him to write this poem also encouraged him throughout his one legged life which he spent very actively and writing excellent poems which evoked varied emotions in the hearts of readers.Henley died in 1903 but never did 'Invictus'.

Nelson Mandela while serving his lifeterm at the Robben island recited the poem to himself and other prisoners.He spent 27 years in prison before being freed in 1990 and then becoming the first black President of South Africa chosen through elections in which for the first time blacks voted.What he achieved in hiscountry was because he never bowed to adversities but rather looked them in the eye.Henley's poem helped him do so.In 1995 the world cup of rugby was held in South Africa.The home team was all white and previously hated by the black community.Mandela took keen interest in rugby.Prior to the event not only he achieve success in turning the hate of the blacks into support but also motivated the captain Francois Piennar to win the cup.Mandela told Piennar about the poem and how it helped him stand when all he wanted was to lie down.Against all odds S.A won the cup defeating New Zealand in an epic of a final.This is the story of Invictus being Immortal.Well so far.....

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