Invictus

ut 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.

Read by Dean Street at the Convocation for Freshman Engineers at Cornell University, September, 1986 (Jefferson Wagener's class).

Jerry Wagener read stanzas 1, 3, 4 at the internment service for his brother Capt. David R. Wagener (Jun 22, 1939 - Oct 20, 1966), on December 5, 1997 at Tahoma National Cemetery near Kent, WA.

-jlw