Invictus
William Ernest Henley
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.Of note
When Henley first published the poem in 1888, in A Book of Verses, it had no title. The name "Invictus," Latin for "unconquered," came from the anthologist Arthur Quiller-Couch, who gave it that heading in The Oxford Book of English Verse in 1900.
Poetry Tale: The Pirate Who Wrote Invictus
FREE AND OPEN: Hello Doggo’s music, recordings and artwork: CC0 1.0, credit optional. The source poem has its own rights status: Poem is public domain.
TEXT PROVENANCE · Written 1875 (traditionally placed in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary) · First published untitled in A Book of Verses (London: David Nutt, 1888), in "Life and Death (Echoes)" · The dedication "To R. T. H. B." (Robert Thomas Hamilton Bruce) was added in the 1891 edition, later "I. M. R. T. Hamilton Bruce (1846–1899)" · The title "Invictus" was given by Arthur Quiller-Couch in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) · Text from The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900, ed. Arthur Quiller-Couch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900), no. 842, as supplied by the owner.
Play narration using the audio controls. Download narration MP3