William Ernest Henley

It’s time for some inspiration as we note the birth date of William Ernest Henley (August 23, 1849 – July 11, 1903), influential 19th Century English writer who suffered from tuberculosis from the age of 12.

At the age of 16, his left leg had to be amputated due to complications arising from tuberculosis. The disease again flared up in his twenties compromising his other good leg, which doctors also wished to amputate. Henley successfully fought to save his leg with the help of distinguished English surgeon Joseph Lister.

While he was hospitalized for three years, Henley wrote the following poem.

Invictus*

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.

-- William Ernest Henley (1888)

* Latin for “Unconquered”