Stolen from evening_damask because it's so good

Invictus and the Response To It
June 19th, 2005 (07:25 pm)

evening_damask wrote:

I have heard the poem "Invictus" read on more than one film, often as an inspiration to a character involved in trying circumstances to rise above them and keep on keeping on. Every time I hear it, though, I get the most awful kind of chills. Not the good kind. The kind where you are half-expecting a thunderbolt to drop from the heavens and devour the television, and possibly you, for allowing such words to fall on your ears. I recently remembered that I had once seen a poem which was written as a direct response to "Invictus." It is a well-thought and inspired response, line for line, to the humanistic blasphemies depicted in the poem by William Ernest Henley. I have chosen several lines from this response as the new title to my blog, and have put a stanza or two of it in the sidebar, because I find it just that inspiring. It is even more inspiring when you realize what it is responding to. It is the Light of Christ confronting the darkness of the powers of evil, and the Light, as always, is triumphant.

Invictus:

Invictus- William Ernest 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.

And the response, "My Captain":

My Captain- Dorothea Day

Out of the night that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ the conqueror of my soul.

Since His the sway of circumstance,
I would not wince nor cry aloud.
Under that rule which men call chance
My head with joy is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears
That life with Him! And His the aid,
Despite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.

I have no fear, though strait the gate,
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate,
Christ is the Captain of my soul.

I don't normally steal things from people I don't know and who don't know me, but I liked this!