Poem Collection

Invictus by 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
y head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
!ooms but the "orror of the shade,
#nd yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
"ow charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
$oem %ollection continued below&
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
'wo roads diverged in a yellow wood
#nd sorry I could not travel both
#nd be one traveler, long I stood
#nd looked down one as far as I could
'o where it bent in the undergrowth(
'hen took the other, as )ust as fair,
#nd having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
'hough as for that the passing there
"ad worn them really about the same,
#nd both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day*
+et knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
,omewhere ages and ages hence-
'wo roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
#nd that has made all the difference.
I ! by Rudyard "i#lin$
If you can keep your head when all about you
#re losing theirs and blaming it on you(
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too-
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don.t deal in lies,
Or being hated don.t give way to hating,
#nd yet don.t look too good, nor talk too wise(
If you can dream///and not make dreams your master(
If you can think///and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with 'riumph and 0isaster
#nd treat those two impostors )ust the same-.
If you can bear to hear the truth you.ve spoken
'wisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
#nd stoop and build .em up with worn/out tools(
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
#nd risk it on one turn of pitch/and/toss,
#nd lose, and start again at your beginnings,
#nd never breathe a word about your loss-
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
'o serve your turn long after they are gone,
#nd so hold on when there is nothing in you
12cept the 3ill which says to them- 4"old on*4
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with 5ings///nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much-
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
3ith si2ty seconds. worth of distance run,
+ours is the 1arth and everything that.s in it,
#nd///which is more///you.ll be a an, my son*
% Psalm o &ie by Henry Wads'orth &on$ello'
(In this poem, Longfellow has summarized some of the teachings of
the Bhagavad Gita, which tells us to do our duty without thinking
about the results)
What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist:
'ell me not, in mournful numbers,
!ife is but an empty dream*
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
#nd things are not what they seem.
!ife is real* !ife is earnest*
#nd the grave is not its goal(
0ust thou art, to dust returnest,
3as not spoken of the soul.
6ot en)oyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way(
But to act, that each to/morrow
Find us farther than to/day.
#rt is long, and 'ime is fleeting,
#nd our hearts, though stout and brave,
,till, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world7s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of !ife,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle*
Be a hero in the strife*
'rust no Future, howe7er pleasant*
!et the dead $ast bury its dead*
#ct,8 act in the living $resent*
"eart within, and 9od o7erhead*
!ives of great men all remind us
3e can make our lives sublime,
#nd, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time(
Footprints, that perhaps another,
,ailing o7er life7s solemn main,
# forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
,eeing, shall take heart again.
!et us, then, be up and doing,
3ith a heart for any fate(
,till achieving, still pursuing,
!earn to labor and to wait.