Invictus
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Invictus is a short poem by the British poet William Ernest Henley, which is the source of a number of familiar clichés and quotations. The title is Latin for "unconquerable." It was first published in 1875.
The poem goes:
- 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.
In this poem, Henley gave the world the familiar phrases "my head is bloody, but unbowed" and "I am the master of my fate". These lines have been quoted many times by people who may not realize the source. They seem a hyperbolic epitome of the "stiff upper lip" that popular culture has made of traditional British virtue, and a comforting image of stoicism in the face of disaster.
In the climax of the 1942 film King's Row, the poem is recited by Parris Mitchell (Robert Cummings) to friend Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan) in an effort to overcome the latter's depression following a permanent injury.
It is also the name of an album by the Heavy Metal band Virgin Steele who use occasional lines of the poem as lyrics on the album.
Outlaw Country Music singer/songwriter David Allan Coe also named a 1980 album after the poem, calling it "Invictus Means Unconquered," reprinting the poem on the back sleeve, coupled with an original poem apparently intended as an homage, and personal follow-up, to the Henley original.
The poem recently gained further notoriety by being quoted by the American terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who quoted it in a communiqué released shortly before his execution for murder committed in the Oklahoma City bombing. He used the full poem as his final statement.
More recently, American terrorist Eric Rudolph alluded to the poem when in court for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 20, 2005, stating, "By the grace of God, I am still here -- a little bloodied, but emphatically unbowed."
This poem was also used in the WB teen drama, One Tree Hill.
The poem is also the motto of BUD/s Class 228, as recorded in "The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228" by Dick Couch. It represents the indomitable spirit of the class members who finished the grueling Basic Underwater Demolition School training in their quest to become Navy SEALs.
The Invictus is also the name of a covenant of vampires in a role playing game published by White Wolf Publishing. The Game is called Vampire: the Requiem.
See also
- If— by Rudyard Kipling
External links
- Image of Timothy McVeigh's final statement given the morning of his execution on June 11, 2001.