Out of the day that smothers me,
    Thick as a wall from brick to brick,
I curse whatever person may be
    For creating a math textbook this thick.

In the fell clutch of math circumstance
    I have both winced and cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
    My brain has gone ******, and has bowed.

Beyond this place of pain and tears
    Looms but the freedom of the shade,
And yet the menace of the math entering my ears
    Finds and shall find me afraid.

It matters not the angle of the gate,
    How charged with questions the scroll,
I am not the master of my fate,
    Math is the captain of my soul.