Just because it's so good at bucking up sagging spirits, I give you "Invictus":

[Atticus]

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

[WhiteTara]

1. I memorized this poem when I was about 11 or 12

I have always considered myself the master of my fate and the captain of my soul.

[Atticus]

2. That you understood it and cared enough to write it on your mind tells me all I need to know

of you.

Poets are the most underappreciated artists. When we share words we love we touch.

Thank you.

[WhiteTara]

8. My parents were

poetry fans and I memorized so many sitting on the kitchen counter reciting different poems I was memorizing.

My parents instilled so much of the arts in me that it is just part of me like blood cells and bone, not even something conscious, you know?

[LymphocyteLover]

3. I thought you meant the movie

which I thought was really good (Mandela reads the poem in the movie IIRC)

[Atticus]

5. Poetry----bare naked words, often written in the soul's blood, are in an entire different sphere

than anything upon the big screen.

Not saying the movie wasn't great; just that Morgan's inimitable recitation was the best part of it.

[LymphocyteLover]

7. fair enough!

[badhair77]

4. I had this on my bulletin board next to my desk when I was teaching.

It helped me to not just endure but prevail through several idiot administrators.

[elleng]

6. Amazed that I remember it.