Timothy McVeigh's choice of an 19th century poem as his handwritten last statement gave new notoriety to the minor Victorian poet who penned the verse in 1875.
McVeigh provided a handwritten copy of William Ernest Henley's Invictus to prison officials, presenting them as his final words.
The poem, written by the English author as he recovered from the amputation of a leg in Edinburgh, is a paean to defiance in the face of obstacles and has over the years become a favourite of rebellious teenagers and others facing real or perceived adversities.
The title - Invictus - means "unconquered" in Latin and the full text of the poem reads:
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 strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
