THE MEANING BEHIND INVICTUS

In 1875, English poet William Ernest Henley penned a poem that originally had no title. This poem was included in the section called Life and Death, in his first volume of poems called, Book of Verses, in the section Life and Death. The title "Invictus", which is Latin for "unconquered", was added by editor Arthur Quiller Couch when the poem was included in The Oxford Book of English Verse.

References made to "INVICTUS" are usually associated with bombs and the maiming of people. In the poem Invictus, the writer is describing himself as coming out of a black pit at night, as he is thanking "gods" (with a little "g"), for his "unconquerable soul", which is to say, a soul that has free will. Even though the writer is covered in blood due to "bludgeonings", he does not bow his head to anyone and never feels afraid. He does respect the "straight and narrow" gate or the warnings of God's wrath found in Scriptures as he states: "It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll." The writer makes this statement because he believes in his heart that he, and he alone, is the master of his own fate and the captain of his own soul.

The poem goes as follows:

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.