Determination Poems

Thanks to inspirational mail, who had people write what I couldn't

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will; 

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;

When the funds are low, and the debts are high;

And you want to smile but you have to sigh;

When care is pressing you down a bit - 

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;

The silver line of the clouds of doubt;

And you can never tell how close you are;

It may be near when it seems afar.

So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - 

It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit.

--Unknown

Defeat

No one is beat till he quits,

No one is through till he stops,

No matter how hard Failure hits,

No matter how often he drops,

A fellow's not down till he lies

In the dust and refuses to rise.

Fate can slam him and bang him around,

And batter his frame till he's sore,

But she can never say he's downed

While he bobs up serenely for more.

A fellow's not dead till he dies,

Nor beat till he no longer tries.

-- Edgar Guest

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 bloodied 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 straight the gate,

Nor how charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

-- William Ernest Henley

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