Invictus - William Earnest Henley

William Earnest Henley


A Short Biography is next:

b. Aug. 23, 1849, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Eng. d. July 11, 1903, Woking, near London

British poet, critic, and editor who in his journals introduced the early work of many of the great English writers of the 1890s.

As a child Henley contracted a tubercular disease that later necessitated the amputation of one foot. His other leg was saved only through the skill and radical new methods of the surgeon Joseph Lister, whom he sought out in Edinburgh. Forced to stay in an infirmary in Edinburgh for 20 months (1873-75), he began writing free-verse impressionistic poems about hospital life that established his poetic reputation. These were included in A Book of Verses (1888). Dating from the same period is his most popular poem, "Invictus" (1875), which concludes with the lines "I am the master of my fate; / I am the captain of my soul." The rest of his best-known work is contained in London Voluntaries (1893) and In Hospital (1903).

Henley's long, close friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson began in 1874 when he was still a patient, and Stevenson based part of the character of Long John Silver in Treasure Island on his crippled, hearty friend. (See Stevenson, Robert Louis Balfour.)

Henley earned his living as an editor, the most brilliant of his journals being the Scots Observer of Edinburgh, of which he became editor in 1889. The journal was transferred to London in 1891 and became the National Observer. Though conservative in its political outlook, it was liberal in its literary taste and published the early work of Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, James Barrie, and Rudyard Kipling.

As an editor and critic, Henley was remembered by young writers as a benevolent bully, generous in his promotion and encouragement of unknown talents and fierce in his attacks on unmerited reputations. Henley also edited, with T.F. Henderson, the centenary edition (1896-97) of the poems of Robert Burns, which is still valuable.

His later years were saddened by the death of his daughter, an only child born after 10 years of marriage.

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Re: Invictus - William Earnest Henley



I love that poem! This poem inspired me to write one of my own, and here is a quote from it.

"I shall not bow down to God or Man, until the truth is known, and even then I won't."

did you know?
hey hey did you know that invictus was the last words spoken before the exection of timothy mc vae (responsible for the oklahoma bombings) he read it to be the last terrifying words to leave us with but not in the way that we read it . he had a twisted perspective but he meant it to be an i am greater than god and the only one who has control over my fate so i with live forever kind of way. just thought you might like to know that cuz its pretty crazy! its an amazing peom ragardless though its just a matter of how you interpret it. nite nite

I love this poem and the life of Nelson Mandella so very much.