INVICTUS

Well i think this is my favourite poem of all time, and definately my favourite Latin word. I'd like to think in a past life i shouted it as a Roman soldier while smashing the skull of a Turk.

Its Latin for 'unconquered' but i always think the poem is good to read if things are looking sketchy and you cant find a way up and out. And sure as hell beats sinking that bottle of Vodka ;o)

Here the background info on the author, William Ernest Henley

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.