And this is another of my favourite poems. It's also an integral part of a very inspiring movie that I've enjoyed watching (Invictus).

Invictus

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 strait the gate,  

  How charged with punishments the scroll,  

I am the master of my fate:  

  I am the captain of my soul.  

–  William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)