It starts out,
"out of the night that covers me
black as the (something) from pole to pole)
And then it ends something like
“I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.”
Help?
It’s called “Invictus” by Henley.
Here’s a link: http://www.bartleby.com/103/7.html
Unfortunately it became known recently as the Oklahoma City bomber’s last words. Oh well.
That’s from William Henley’s poem Invictus (which my exceptionally rusty Latin wants to translate as “Unconquered,” but that’s not very trustworthy).
Full poem is on-line here (Mods: Henley died in 1903, so this is safely in the Public Domain.) Further searching shows that this poem is online literally hundreds of times, but I didn’t find anything much about Henley – a short encyclopedia entry on him is here.
Invictus is most famous recently for being the source of Timothy McVeigh’s final words.
That’s it! That’s it! I loooove Dopers. Thanks a bunch.
"I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul "
Or…as my aunt Andrea usually put it:
“I am the master of my fate!
I am the captain…of my vollyball team!”
Maybe you had to be there…