Nelson Mandela and Invitcus 3

Benet Kinghorn History. 5/3/2010
"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." Invictus a poem writing in 1875 by an English poet named William Ernest Henley. This is how the book I read started, with this poem which taught me to believe in another way to live life.
"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." Invictus. This causes me to think about when Mandela was stuck in a dark prison cell. He looked from prison bar to prison bar, wondering what will happen to him next. Who wants his unconquerable soul? Mandela did not let this get him down. He kept being the righteous "captain of his own soul." This brings him out of the darkness into a world of light. This being a new start for him. He became one great South African President.
"In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed." Invictus. Mandela, the great man he is, did not complain of the circumstance around him. Instead he took them head on. The circumstance of a racial divide between blacks and whites called Apartheid. Mandela came out of this racism torn apart, but he was not destroyed by it. Knowing what this does to a country he brought that train of thought with him as president.
"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." Invictus. In this place of racial distress it is not time to be afraid but a time to become a savior. Mandela was not the first but he was a significant man of keeping Apartheid from every happen again.
"I am the captain of my soul". Mandela through all he experienced, kept himself strong by being a good "Captain of his Soul." This poem inspired Mandela when in prison and it did the same for me but in a different way. No one else can be the captain of my soul but myself. No matter what circumstances may come my way, I am the only one who can steer my soul through the experiences I have in my life.