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William Ernest Henley · 1888
Invictus
The full text of William Ernest Henley’s poem, what it means in plain words, and its best lines as pictures you can download and share.
- Poet
- William Ernest Henley
- Published
- 1888
- First line
- Out of the night that covers me
Invictus
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 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.
Best lines
Download lines from Invictus
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I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Meaning and summary
“Invictus” is Latin for “unconquered”. In the darkness of suffering, the speaker gives thanks for a soul that cannot be defeated. Hard circumstances have gripped him and chance has beaten him, but he has not flinched or cried out: his head is bloody but not bowed.
Whatever lies ahead, even death, finds him unafraid. However narrow the gate and however long the list of punishments, he alone rules his fate and his soul. Nelson Mandela recited it to fellow prisoners on Robben Island.
Form
Four four-line stanzas in iambic tetrameter, rhyming ABAB.
About the poet
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903), an English poet and editor, wrote it in 1875 in hospital, after losing a leg to tuberculosis of the bone. It was published in 1888.
Poems
More classic poems
Questions
About the poem
What does Invictus mean?
Unconquered, in Latin.
What is the message of Invictus?
That however hard life becomes, a person can keep an unbeaten spirit and be master of their own fate.
Why did Henley write Invictus?
He wrote it in hospital in 1875, during a long illness that had cost him a leg.