poetry project

Fate and Invictus

Sydney KatzXiao Wang

Andrew DouglasMegan Winstead

Fate by: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Author believes fate is unknown to man

The man’s fate is already determined and will shape his future

Deep in the man sits fast his fate

To mould his fortunes, mean or great:

Unknown to Cromwell as to me

Was Cromwell’s measure or degree;

Unknown to him as to his horse,

If he than his groom be better or worse.

Member of any of the 5 degrees of nobility in Great Britain or Ireland (duke, baron, etc.)

He was not supposed to be a king in England

Author sums up Cromwell’s attempt to rise to power

Fate by: Ralph Waldo Emerson

He works, plots, fights, in rude affairs,

With squires, lords, kings, his craft compares,

Till late he learned, through doubt and fear

Broad England harbored not his peer:

Following the path of fate, the last one accept God’s plan

Biblical allusion

Prove the fact that Cromwell’s fate is already determined

Cromwell’s (man’s) fate is the same fate that God created

Fate by: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Obeying time, the last to own

The Genius form its cloudy throne.

For the prevision is allied

Unto the thing so signified;

Or say, the foresight that awaits

Is the same Genius that creates.

Invictusby: William Ernest Henley

Latin for unconquerable, taking responsibility for one’s destiny

Believes he has the choice to determine his fate, not a higher power

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.

Invictusby: William Ernest Henley

Describes how unfair life has been for him

Being beaten with a club

No matter how unfair life is, he won’t give in to fate

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody but unbowed.

Invictusby: William Ernest Henley

Throughout the struggle of the years, he is still standing strong

The worst is yet to come

negative connotationsBeyond 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.

Invictusby: William Ernest Henley

1.Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate…

He isn’t afraid to go against God’s will

He determines his future, not fate.

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.