In the secret halls they made   With violence as their trade   Behind curtain, beyond charade   In whispers, they say      Pain, you've seen it all    You stagger and fall   But after the fight   You're into the light   The deeper you go   The further you get   Try as you might   You're into the light      The carrot and the stick   The walls, so thick   The prison of today   With malice, they say      Out of 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 straight the gate    How charged with punishments the scroll    I am the master of my fate    And I am the captain of my soul