It’s my first visit to this blog and to pumb on this interresting topic. Analysing and decrypting a poem is not an easier task. However, I am sturned to see all of those poeple who search and find some relations or connections between writing/saying of great minds and their own religions(all of them). Frankly speaking, there are any divine signification on the perfect sentence: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. On the same order of idea, according to some religious, the wine, in “quatrains” of the great persian poet Omar Khayam, has another sense.

I don’t know why we refuse to take the simplest sense or interpretation like says Occam’s razor?????

Thanks for Justin for this amazing analysis. I’m the master of my fate, I’m the capatain of my soul.

“It matters not how strait the gate-how charged with punishments the scroll”
it’s actually a biblical reference toward: the path of righteousness and the way to salvation ( “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way” ) The scroll is the scroll referred to in Revelations as in the books of life. The narrow gate, the scroll, the punishments…all lovely metaphors.
Finally….the bible quotes & refers to God as “‘I AM’ this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” (Ex. 3:13-15).
& so the duality in the final famous lines is powerful, no?
hence…
I am (God) is the master of my fate.
I am (God) is the captain of my soul.

“”With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

As for your feelings of unease….remember that you are perfect and wonderfully made and you will “master” the navigation of your life just by staying true to your highest self. Despite adversity, setbacks, and hardships….for just when you feel as though you could not take another step…do not give up then, for that is just the hour when the tide will change….

Here’s a parable that I like to refer to…heart’s-ease in the King’s garden

“I have heard:
A king went into his garden and found wilted and dying trees, shrubs and flowers. The oak said it was dying because it could not be tall like the pine. Turning to the pine, he found it drooping because it was unable to bear grapes like the vine. And the vine was dying because it could not blossom like the rose. He found Heart’s-ease blooming and as fresh as ever. Upon inquiry, he received this reply:

“I took it for granted that when you planted me you wanted Heart’s-ease. If you had desired an oak, a vine or a rose, you would have planted them. So I thought that since you put me here, I should do the best I can to be what you want. I can be nothing but what I am, and I am trying to be that to the best of my ability.”

You are here because this existence needs you as you are. Otherwise somebody else would have been here!–existence would not have helped you to be here, would not have created you. You are fulfilling something very essential, something very fundamental, as you are. If God wanted a Buddha he could have produced as many Buddhas as he wanted. He produced only one Buddha–that was enough, and he was satisfied to his heart’s desire, utterly satisfied. Since then he has not produced another Buddha or another Christ.

He has created you instead. Just think of the respect that the universe has given to you! You have been chosen, not Buddha, not Christ, not Krishna. You will be needed more, that’s why. You fit more now. Their work is done, they contributed their fragrance to existence. Now you have to contribute your fragrance.

But the moralists, the puritans, the priests, they go on teaching you, they go on driving you crazy. They say to the rose, “Become a lotus.” And they say to the lotus, “What are you doing here? You have to become something else.” They drive the whole garden crazy, everything starts dying–because nobody can be anybody else, that is not possible.

That’s what has happened to humanity. Everybody is pretending. Authenticity is lost, truth is lost, everybody is trying to show that he is somebody else. Just look at yourself: you are pretending to be somebody else. And you can be only yourself–there is no other way, there has never been, there is no possibility that you can be anybody else. You will remain yourself. You can enjoy it and bloom, or you can wither away if you condemn it.

You cannot improve upon yourself. And I am not saying that improvement does not happen, remember–but you cannot improve upon yourself. When you stop improving upon yourself, life improves you. In that relaxation, in that acceptance, life starts caressing you, life starts flowing through you. Nobody else has ever been like you and nobody else will ever be like you; you are simply unique, incomparable.

Accept this, love this, celebrate this–and in that very celebration you will start seeing the uniqueness of the others, the incomparable beauty of the others.

Stay Blessed

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

Back on topic which I take to be the original poster’s deprecating himself for lack of motivation/energy/purpose/meaning etc.

While I cannot be certain I daresay these feelings are by no means unique and probably very common among many individuals who are not satiated nor satisfied by physical and material pursuits and gatherings of every type imagineable.

It seems to me that we all meander through various stages of our life seeking answers to the unanswerable and so a goodly proportion of the planet’s population live their lives based on religious dogma and philosophies on the promise of rewards based eternal afterlife worshipping an imaginary creator.

While I try not to make judgment calls on other people’s beliefs, these beliefs have never seemed logical to me and verge on or even exceed self-delusion.

Like all living things, man (which term includes woman) is a relatively complicated organism struggling to maintain his/her existence in the course of which learns the unequivocal truth that at the time of birth they are doomed to die by any number of means – natural or unnatural.

In between birth and death, we need to do something with our lives and thus, by and large emulate those we find in our immediate environment whether by design or influence of family, peers or the establishment.

Fortunate and few are those who find something to fill in the gap with something that they highly enjoy and well remunerated in either a fiduciary or emotional sense. The rest of us merely live our lives pragmatically, mundanely,routinely and vicarously.

That’s enough of my meanderings – I’m starting to feel sleepy and am off to bed – if I may, I would like to leave you with two simple things I’ve followed throughout my life of some 7 decades thus far – Love the one you’re with and love the work you do – otherwise you’re gonna be a miserable SOB.

I came upon your blog while looking for Henley’s Invictus. As others, I was quite impressed by Henley’s eloquence, especially given the trials he experienced, but his poem didn’t quite do it for me (too negative and dark) so I wrote my own. In case you’re interested, here it is:

Victus (after Invictus by William Ernest Henley)

Out of the night that covered me,
beyond the pit that claimed me whole,
I thank The God who lives eternally
that He has freed my conquered soul.

Beneath fell weight of God’s just vow,
my heart in fearful torment fled;
but He bore my curse upon His brow.
I am reclaimed, for me He bled!

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
loomed death; the horror of the shade.
Thank God He carried all my fears!
In His love I am unafraid.

It matters not how strait His gate,
how charged with punishments His scroll;
His love has saved me from my fate;
He is redeemer of my soul.

Take it easy man, and remember to smile once in a while because there are many other people who feel like you do, you are not alone in your misery nor your sadness.

Promise me one thing; when you regain your strength, when you find your bearings, when you are back on your feet please seek out others who were weak, like you once were and help them out.
That will give you true satisfaction, trust me. You can even voluteer your time somewhere doing something constructive.

FYI my email Patrick Ardahalian @ hotmail . com (all one word – I separated it so stupid online bots don’t spam me)

Peace out

Thanks,
Patrick