<b>Invictus</b><br> BY WILLIAM<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-ernest-henley"> ERNEST HENLEY</a><br> Out of the night that covers me,<br> Black as the pit from pole to pole,<br> I thank whatever gods may be<br> For my unconquerable soul.<br> In the fell clutch of circumstance<br> I have not winced nor cried aloud.<br> Under the bludgeonings of chance<br> My head is bloody, but unbowed.<br> Beyond this place of wrath and tears<br> Looms but the Horror of the shade,<br> And yet the menace of the years<br> Finds and shall find me unafraid.<br> It matters not how strait the gate,<br> How charged with punishments the scroll,<br> I am the master of my fate,<br> I am the captain of my soul

<br> I see trees of green, red roses too<br> I see them bloom for me and you<br> And I think to myself what a wonderful world I see skies of blue and clouds of white<br> The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night<br> And I think to myself what a wonderful world The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky<br> Are also on the faces of people going by<br> I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do<br> They're really saying I love you I hear babies crying, I watch them grow<br> They'll learn much more than I'll never know<br> And I think to myself what a wonderful world<br> Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world

Night of the Scorpion I remember the night my mother<br> was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours<br> of steady rain had driven him<br> to crawl beneath a sack of rice. Parting with his poison - flash<br> of diabolic tail in the dark room -<br> he risked the rain again. The peasants came like swarms of flies<br> and buzzed the name of God a hundred times<br> to paralyse the Evil One. With candles and with lanterns<br> throwing giant scorpion shadows<br> on the mud-baked walls<br> they searched for him: he was not found.<br> They clicked their tongues.<br> With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in Mother's blood, they said. May he sit still, they said<br> May the sins of your previous birth<br> be burned away tonight, they said.<br> May your suffering decrease<br> the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.<br> May the sum of all evil<br> balanced in this unreal world against the sum of good<br> become diminished by your pain.<br> May the poison purify your flesh of desire, and your spirit of ambition,<br> they said, and they sat around<br> on the floor with my mother in the centre,<br> the peace of understanding on each face.<br> More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,<br> more insects, and the endless rain.<br> My mother twisted through and through,<br> groaning on a mat.<br> My father, sceptic, rationalist,<br> trying every curse and blessing,<br> powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.<br> He even poured a little paraffin<br> upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.<br> I watched the flame feeding on my mother.<br> I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantation.<br> After twenty hours<br> it lost its sting. My mother only said<br> Thank God the scorpion picked on me<br> And spared my children.

I too like Daffodils and many more along with it. <br> The one poem which first touched me and I discovered my love for poetry was . "The night of the Scorpion" i could feel the pain of the sting ..., The love of the mother when she said in the end that ....thank God it bit me and spared my children ...I was in grade 4 when I first read this...but I understood the depth and pain and unconditional love of Mother !!

I love daffodils its my favourite poem too. <a href="http://app.babychakra.com/user/265516"><b><font color ="#3b5998">Swati upadhyay</font></b></a> <font color ="#3b5998"><b> @5f8b3e3f43e4090046317c11 </b></font>