I am looking for the poem about the hero, "bloody but unbowed" who struggles with real challenges while the criticizers and complainers carp and do nothing.
jrg,
It is from Invictus by William E. Henley
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.
jhs
That has the right spirit, but is not the writing I am looking for. What I am looking for may not be a "poem" except in the ancient Jewish sence. It is probably unrhymed, but has lines of similar length. It specifically praises the man "in the arena"
Try this page.
[www.thesojourners.org] />
Probably not what you were looking for, but same spirit.
Thanks, Linda. Your author obviously referred to the piece I am looking for. That was an inspiring statement.
Author: Tandy (158.sui213.atln.attga31ur.dsl.att.net)
Date: 12-08-03 14:15
Would someone who can post in the Lost Poetry section please post this in answer to jrg's topic "In the Arena":
You may be thinking of a speech made at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, on April 23, 1910, by Theodore Roosevelt, entitled "The Man in the Arena." The part you may be thinking of is: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
See [www.theodore-roosevelt.com] />
Stephen
Thank you very much, Steven. That is the thing I needed. Sorry, it wasnt technically a poem, though when properly paragraphed it has the form of blank verse.