The Original Zero in the City

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 straight the gate, | How charged with punishment the scroll; | I am the master of my fate; | I am the captain of my soul.