18 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Nelson Mandela

9. Mandela Read The Poem "Invictus" While In Prison... And That's Why The Film About South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup Triumph Was Named As Such

During his 18 years of imprisonment on Robben Island between 1964 and 1982, Mandela managed to draw inspiration to keep fighting for the cause he believed in from a 19th-Century poem. "Invictus" - written by Victorian poet William Ernest Henley in 1875 and then published in 1888 - became the title for the 2009 biographical sports film about South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup triumph, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring both Morgan Freeman (Mandela) and Matt Damon (Francois Pienaar). The poem, literally meaning "unconquered" in Latin, resonated with Mandela and he would read it to his fellow inmates, particularly its last and now famous line:

"I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul."