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Invictus
William Ernest Henley
About William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) suffered a tubercular infection when he was in his early twenties resulting in the amputation of a leg below the knee. During Henley's twenty-month ordeal at a hospital, he wrote Invictus and other poems. He faced his difficulties with courage and went on to become an influential poet, critic and editor of the late-Victorian era in England.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerabale soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not 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 flate,
I am the captains of my soul.
Available Answers
- 1.
What is the poet thankful for?
- 2.
How do we know that although his fate has been harsh, the poet is not giving up ?
- 3.
What is to be found at the end of this unhappy life? And even as he grows older, what does the poet say would be his attitude?
- 4.
Who is in control, despite all the punishments he has to bear in this life and in the afterlife?
- 5.
The word 'charged' has several meanings. What does the poet intend it to mean?
- 6.
Is the poet confident and secure at the end of the poem?
4 more answer(s) available.