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.
[Dankie, mnr. JD van den Berg]