Conocido en gran medida por la película del Clint Eastwod sobre la vida de Nelson Mandela, Invictus es un poema escrito por William Ernest Henley,
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.
El texto tiene una fuerza y optimismo intrínsecos, al leerlo podemos llegar entender porque este poema le dio a Nelson Mandela la resistencia y fe necesaria para soportar su estancia en Robben Island
