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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 unbow'd.
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.
by W.E. Henley
Loving Mad Tom
From the hag and the hungry goblin
That into riches would rend ye
All the spirits that stand by the naked man
In the book of the moons defend ye!
That of your five found senses
You never be forsaken
Nor wander from yourselves with Tom
Abroad to beg your bacon.
When I short have shorn my sour face
And swigged my horny barrel
In an oaken inn I pound my skin
as a suit of gilt apparel.
The Moon's my constant Mistress, And the lonely owl my marrow,
The flaming drake and the night crow make
me music to my sorrow.
I know more than Apollo,
For oft when he lies sleeping
I see the stars at bloody wars
In the wounded welkin weeping;
The moon embraced her shepherd
And the Queen of love her warrior,
While the first doth horn the star of morn
And the next the heavenly Farrier.
With a host of furious fancies
Whereof I am commander,
With a burning spear, and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.
By a knight of ghosts and shadows
I summoned am to tourney,
Then leagues beyond the wild world's end.
Methinks it is no journey.
Anonymous
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of
false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden
path or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded."
by Ralph Waldo Emerson |
