Invictus and Selected Slave Narratives
Social Studies, Mr. White
The poem Invictus by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEYis composed against the backdrop of the author’s battle with tuberculosis of the bone. Invictus is Latin for “unconquerable, invincible, and undefeated.” A defiant Henley refused to be incapacitated or defined solely by his disease.
...... The theme of the poem is the will to survive in the face of a severe test. Henley himself faced such a test. After contracting tuberculosis of the bone in his youth, he suffered a tubercular infection when he was in his early twenties that resulted in amputation of a leg below the knee. When physicians informed him that he must undergo a similar operation on the other leg, he enlisted the services of Dr. Joseph Lister (1827-1912), the developer of antiseptic medicine. He saved the leg. During Henley's twenty-month ordeal between 1873 and 1875 at the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary in Scotland, he wrote “Invictus” and other poems. Years later, his friend Robert Louis Stevenson based the character Long John Silver (a peg-legged pirate in the Stevenson novelTreasure Island) on Henley.Source:
Individuals from Nelson Mandela to Winston Churchill, John McCain to Martin Luther King Jr. have drawn upon its linesfor inspiration, strength and meaning.
Invictus
BYWILLIAM 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.
While Invictus is not written about Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Henry “Box” Brown or any other slave;1955 it could easily have been!
Your task is threefold:
1. Analyze the poem
2. How is the spirit of “Invictus” mirrored in the life of the slave you are reading about?
3. Describe where your life need to cultivate or would benefit from the spirit of “Invictus?”
Your paper is in essay form with an introduction, body and conclusion. Paper should be double spaced, 12 font and maximum of three pages. If you quote from the book use the following format, “quote” page number, author’s name. Lines from the poem should be italicized.
Paper is due April 6, 2016. Be sure to attend to the scoring rubric and complete self-assessment.