Henley+Poems

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Put 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 change 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 mater of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

There’s a Regret

There’s a regret So grinding, so immitigably sad, Remorse thereby feels tolerant, even glad... Do you not know it yet?

For deeds undone Rnakle and snarl and hunger for their due, Till there seems naught so despicable as you In all the grin o’ the sun.

Like an old shoe The sea spurns and the land abhors, you lie About the beach of Time, till by and by Death, that derides you too --

Death, as he goes His ragman’s round, espies you, where you stray, With half-an-eye, and kicks you out of his way And then -- and then, who knows

But the kind Grave Turns on you, and you feel the convict Worm, In that black bridewell working out his term, Hanker and grope and crave?

“Poor fool that might -- That might, yet would not, dared not, let this be, Think of it, here and thus made over to me In the implacable night!”

And writhing, fain And like a triumphing lover, he shall take, His fill where no high memory lives to make His obscene victory vain.

I am the Reaper

I am the Reaper. All things with heedful hook Silent I gather. Pale roses touched with the spring, Tall corn in summer, Fruits rich with autumn, and frail winter blossoms- Reaping, still reaping- All things with heedful hook Timely I gather.

I am the Sower. All the unbodied life Runs through my seed-sheet. Atom with atom wed, Each quickening the other, Fall through my hands, ever changing, still changeless. Ceaselessly sowing, Life, incorruptible life, Flows from my seed-sheet.

Maker and breaker, I am the ebb and the flood, Here and Hereafter, Sped through the tangle and coil Of infinite nature, Viewless and soundless I fashion all being. Taker and giver, I am the womb and the grave, The Now and the Ever.