After Kipling’s “If” This is the Most Manly Poem Ever Written

Those who know William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus” (which translates to “unconquerable”) might not know the context behind when/why it was written.

Henley (1849-1903) was born in Gloucester, England. He was the eldest of six. His father was a struggling bookseller who died when Henley was a teenager. When he was about 12, he was diagnosed with tubercular arthritis (tuberculosis of the bone). This led to the amputation of his left leg below the knee in his teens. When the disease threatened his other leg in his twenties, he traveled to Edinburgh and underwent pioneering antiseptic treatment by surgeon Joseph Lister, which saved the limb. He spent about 20 months in the infirmary, during which he began writing poetry seriously. 

Invictus is a product of these desperate struggles.

INVICTUS

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.