Poetry Perspective: An Inconquerable Soul

William Ernest Henley was not a lucky man. From a young age, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis which led to the amputation of his left leg, and would endure great pain when draining tuberculosis abscesses. Health issues would follow him through his 53 years of life. While confined to the hospital bed, fighting tuberculosis and loneliness, he wrote Inviticus.

Invictus

By: 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 me and shall find me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishment the scroll,

I am the master of my life,

I am the captain of my soul.

 

Henley has every reason to be scornful, he was confined to a dull fate, and pain blankets his life as the “night that covers me”. Yet Henley does not commit to hatred of his fate. He recognizes his curses, but also his gifts, and instead of cursing the gods, he thanks them. A sign of a truly unconquerable soul that does not submit to the inevitable nature of a painful life, but appraises his tools and faces it.

Circumstances and chance have led Henley to a life of pain, a life of hospital visits. However, while enduring the great pain of draining tuberculosis abscess, he would leap around and laugh. Henley chose to force a jovial attitude when circumstance demanded the opposite. This reinforces Henley’s determination against circumstance, a dedication to effort rather than submission.

Henley admits that there is no hope beyond. He envisions only more pain by the whip of “… the menace of the years”. This is similar to the idea of absurdism that asserts that life is meaningless labor likened to the tale of Sisyphus. Individuals live by pushing their rock, their burden of life, to the top of a hill, just for it to roll back down. There lie no rewards, no assistance, no redemption nor heaven awaits. Just living and approaching “.. the Horror of the shade.”

Then why? What is the source of struggle against life’s burdens? Because we are “… the master of [our] life… the captain of [our] soul”. We are in charge of ourselves today. It does not matter what lies beyond our life, or what awaits tomorrow. Life is a navigation of circumstances, struggles, and burdens. But we can never submit to sorrow as we relinquish control of our life. Through everything, what remains is ourselves. Against the eternal night, against the clutch of circumstance, against the menace of the years, we remain the captain of our soul, we alone must guide our ship to tomorrow, whatever tomorrow may be, and live to the best self.

— William Ouyang