The Life of the Unconquerable

Through designed and a specific use of language, a writer can deliver the most meaningful experiences in their lives through the scheme of poetry. Thoughtfulness for the various fundamentals that make a poem grab your attention, such as imagery, symbolism, rhyme and setting to name a few, offers additional appreciation of what the author is trying to convey. Recognizing these fundamentals, and understanding how they come together to provoke a piece exposes multifaceted meanings and experiences for the reader. Moreover, in some poems it is just as important, and can show added appreciation for the poem, if the life of the poet is studied. Such as William E. Henley poem “Invictus.” With William E. Henley’s biography in mind, learning the utmost significant and real essentials used in “Invictus” exposes a complicated and scholarly appreciation of his writings.
Looking into William Henley’s life gives the reader clairvoyance into his intentions when writing “Invictus.” Henley was born poor in England in mid-nineteenth century. “He contracted a form of tuberculosis, during childhood, which put him through a prolonged, grueling battle against the disease and resulted in an amputated leg by the age of 16” (Flora 7). During his childhood and continuing into adulthood, Henley remained in hospitals and infirmaries enduring numerous painful treatments for his illness. Because of these hospitalizations and being too poor to pay schooling costs, Henley’s education, which he prized and desired, was not advanced as he wished. It was not until a new principal, T.E. Brown became headmaster that Henley was delivered with other means of getting an education while still being bed bound in the hospital. Brown was considered “a widener, who made one feel that there was something beyond the school, beyond successful performance at lessons or at games; there was a whiff of
Tillman 2 the great world brought in by him’” (Connell 32). Brown was also a writer and took an interest in Henley, bestowing himself to Henley’s education which the school had not. It is undoubtedly reasonable to recognize Brown as a catalyst in Henley’s devotion to schooling and a significant source of inspiration. Though, it is important to distinguish, “though he was lavish in praise of and thanks to his old schoolmaster, T. E. Brown, William Henley was a man who taught himself all that he knew” (Connell 11). Henley’s biography states this many times about his personality and motivation. For a child to agonize in enduring pain and to have an amputation before refined medical care and good anesthetics was available, and still have the willpower to outshine academically shows the power of Henley’s internal strength and determination to overcome his conditions.
In Latin “Invictus,” translates to “unconquerable” and was written by Henley while lying in a hospital bed at the age of twenty-six. (Parris 32) “’Invictus’ is considered to be his most famous poem” (Flora 95). Imitating Henley’s natural life, up to this point, while analyzing the sixteen lines of “Invictus,” lets the reader understand his state of mind when he wrote it. It is fitting to recognize Henley’s use of language through “Invictus” as internal terminology. “The vocabulary Henley has chosen throughout the poem is certainly common language”, however his specific use of words is what induces internal strength and achievement over sadness, pain and certain fate. (Meyer 623)
The quality of tone that Henley created in “Invictus” is unstable, but flowing and powerful. A poem's tone is the attitude that its style implies. The disposition that is shaped in each stanza of the poem is of blackness, lonesomeness, and unavoidable feeling of lost, but with each misfortune, moves to show the narrator as triumphant. “Out of the night that covers me, /Black as the Pit from pole to pole” suggests the feelings of a merciless, pending despair that the narrator can’t escape. (Lines 1-2) The last two lines of the first stanza Henley begins this change to triumph: “I thank whatever gods may be /For my unconquerable soul.” (Lines 3-4) Henley shows he begins to have no fear and stands victorious over the threatening manifestation. The second stanza, “In the fell clutch of circumstance” and “Under the bludgeoning of chance” Henley restates the obvious existence of vagueness. (Lines 5, 7)Yet again,
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Henley refutes downfall: “I have not winced nor cried aloud” and “My head is bloody, but unbowed.” (Lines 5, 8) The third and ending stanzas continues this change of conquering. Nevertheless, it is vital to identify that Henley finishes the poem as the champion, the leader over this inequality and how he conquered it. He ends with a departing tone that restates what the title means unconquerable.
“Invictus” shows numerous symbols throughout the writing to emphasize Henley’s anticipated theme for the poem. A symbol works two ways: It is something itself, and it also suggests something deeper. In the first stanza, it is commonly accepted that Henley’s use of the word “night” to mean any energy that is working against you, a hurdle that presents itself as uncontainable. For Henley, it is possibly could be any amount of obstacles that he was raising attention to. Looking at his life, it seems that “night” probable refers to the illness that afflicted him as a child and caused him constant suffering his whole life. Later, in the first line, “covers” can be seen as a symbol for an affection and connection between the reader and writer. The meaning of “the Pit” in the second line of the first stanza, can be acknowledged as a dark endless pit, abyss, or void. Obviously, Henley, is not signifying he is literally covered within a pit, but the darkness is involved and attached to him. It is a dark, melancholy, and miserable place this dark pit or endless abyss. It is important to notice the capitalization of “Pit” in the poem. It is “the Pit” and not just any pit which is the controller of this forthcoming fate that plagues him. This “Pit” along with the line “from pole to pole” expresses how it reaches from the North Pole and South Pole of the Earth.
The deliberate use of “clutch of circumstance” in the first line of the second stanza is a vivid metaphor used to relate the speaker’s circumstance to an uncanny, almost beast like clutch whose grasp he can’t seem to escape. A metaphor ia a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. The “bludgeonings” given by chance which left the speaker’s head “bloody,” in the second stanza, is an association for a dynamic delivery of the unwelcome circumstances that are placed on the speaker. Despite all sufferings and unwanted that have offered themselves, the speaker has stood up to all trials without giving up his
Tillman 4 need for victory over these fiends. The eighth line “My head is bloody, but unbowed” is one and the same with this. (Line 8) Identifying the later symbols within the work, on the third stanza in the first line, in Henley is leading the reader to a miserable place farther than “the Pit” of darkness. He continues, “Beyond this place of wrath and tears /Looms but the horror of the shade.” (Line 9-10) This dark place is not in “the Pit” talked about earlier, it is darker, deeper, and “Beyond.” In the depths, “Looms but the Horror of the shade.” (Line 10) This line brings the reader to the most disturbing horrifying place within ones imagination, while leading them there acknowledges the awfulness of merciless energy the place gives out, refusing to be unnoticed. The “Horror of the shade” characterizes death in this line and the widespread fright of death being the end of all. (Line 10) When Henley says “the menace of the years,” in the next line, he is symbolizing the unceasing existence and risk of death through all his years, which are the same within his own life. (Line 11)
The most inspiring and prevailing lines of “Invictus” is the last stanza. This stanza consist the most powerful lines in the poem. This stanza certainly is the most inspiring and perhaps the most emotional lines in the work that embrace some symbols that are important for the reader to understand, comprehend and interpret for a full experience. Henley’s line “It matters not how strait the gate,” symbolizes the speaker’s unimportance to his suffering, pain and hardships. (Line 13) This line states how insignificant the trail maybe, no matter how difficult or testing his trail to the final entrance of his splendor was. “Gate” in this line was planned to embody the celebrated state of conquest over his disparity and imminent fears. This line can also be seen as a religious theme in suggesting Henley is referring to the gate of Heaven and the speaker’s submissive boldness towards the journeyed path to it. This religious connection could be supported into line 2 of the final stanza when Henley writes, “How charged with punishments the scroll.” (Line 14) Recognizing the use of “scroll” to signify the Bible and possibly the Ten Commandments as the “charged punishments” which the speaker has undeniably been charged. (Line 14) The speaker sets a tone of insignificance towards these “charges” indicating that heavenly involvement can only give little aid in his predicament. Independence is reaffirmed in the final,
Tillman 5 most powerful lines of “Invictus”: “I am the Master of my Fate /I am the Captain of my Soul.” (Line 15-16) These final lines shows how he put behind him the misery which has troubled him. Inside the symbols “Master” and “Captain” Henley lets the speaker take back control, detaching the darkness and escalating to become victorious.
Poetry can be seen as a tool for writers to show their most important and emotional experiences through the deliberate use of language. A reader’s perspective and interpretation of poetry is the most effective practice through the painstaking analysis of the fundamentals used within a poem to emphasize the writer’s anticipated theme. Usually, it is valuable to research a poet’s life to increase an understanding of their work. William Henley’s “Invictus” gives a multifaceted experience to the person who reads it and is capable to relate his life as a component to its interpretation. Learning the elements of language, metaphors, symbols, and tone used by Henley all through the poem strengthens this experience. After a detailed reading and study of William E. Henley’s poem “Invictus” the reader is left feeling powerful, victorious and ultimately unconquerable.