After being diagnosed with tuberculosis, W. E. Henley wrote Invictus in the hospital while undergoing treatment on his left leg, which was amputated from the knee down. He was still only a young man at that time and wrote the poem as a demonstration of his personal strength and determination in fighting the disease.
Invictus
Full Poem by W.E. 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.