Maybe you remember in detail Matt Damon starring in the movie Invictus as Francois Pienaar, the Captain of the South African Rugby Team? Or maybe like many poetry fans like myself, you remember Morgan Freeman’s spine-chilling narration of William Ernest Henley’s ‘Invictus’ Poem? If you remember the latter, you knew instantly that this poem embodied something greater than yourself. Throughout my college experience, I have made the practice of reading poems like “If”, “Invictus”, “Do not go Gentle into that good night”, and “I know why the caged bird sings” for inspiration. However, I have not held tighter to any words than during my ongoing final semester here at Morehouse College.
Many a college senior can attest to the uncertainty that the final year of college is filled with relative to the next step in their future career. As for me, I am finding waiting to hear back from Medical Schools to be an uncertain and sometimes nerve-wracking experience. But through it all I find maintaining a positive attitude and remaining proactive to be important. And so I turn to poems like “Invictus” which emphasize the theme of inner strength and persistence. The author, William Ernest Henley, fought a battle with tuberculosis from a young age which even claimed one of his legs. From his lifelong journey in and out of hospitals he was able to compose a poem for the ages about maintaining a fighting spirit despite uncertainty of circumstance. After reading up on the life of Mr. Henley I am struck with these thoughts as I read his poetry.
“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 first line, I imagine that Henley is referencing, tuberculosis, the disease that is attempting to claim his life. Deathly pain looms over his body like the blackness of night. And whether you’re a Christian or Atheist you can appreciate the last two lines of this stanza. Henley offers thanks to whatever force gave him the special capacity to not let his mind be conquered in his battle with tuberculosis. In this statement he affirms his right to persist despite the disease and pain that keeps him up even during the night hours. From this
“In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have neither winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance,
My head is bloody but unbowed.”
What I always garner from this stanza is that we must always maintain integrity or belief in ourselves. To the young millennial and college senior I believe Mr. Henley is saying in the first two lines that you will fall and experience moments of failure and disappointment in life. However, you must stay true to your belief in yourself despite life’s blows: death in the family, rejection letters, hunger, financial need, heartache, and betrayal of friends. As a whole in this stanza, Henley is communicating to the college senior that you must not give negative circumstances the satisfaction of your discomfort. Keep a smile on your face! Although Henley reassures that many forms of adversity will draw your own blood, he basks in the pride his head being unbowed despite it all. One’s attitude even during uncertainty means everything.
“Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the horror of the shade.
And the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.”
In this stanza, Henley assesses the thing that holds us back the most in addition to doubt. Fear. I can imagine Mr. Henley sitting in his cot as a patient in-between whatever treatments they offered for tuberculosis during that time. Aside from the physical pain, I can only imagine the psychological pain he is feeling as this disease is robbing him of his ability to enjoy his life. In his angry tears, he has somehow overcome the fear of facing death itself. I can hear him thinking, “whatever curse or being is responsible for my suffering if at all, will not find satisfaction in my fear.” To the college senior like myself who is uncertain about what the next step may be this stanza offers that beyond our anxiety of the moment, lies a better tomorrow. In our individual attempts to look beyond our present pain, we can discover the freedom of being unafraid. This freedom is not borne out of temerity but out of a belief in ourselves.
“It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.”
This final stanza embodies Henley’s simplest message and this is to exert ownership over your own future. The expectations of society and your shortcomings should not prevent you from exerting control over your future. The last two stanzas which are probably the most popular assert that man has some input regarding the overall output of his fate. Practice makes perfect or rather practice leads to mastery over one’s craft. The passion that you dedicate to towards you craft or career will dictate your fate essentially. In the last line of the poem, it is as if Henley is offering that even if my fate or career doesn’t end up as planned, I have the ultimate power over my soul as its Captain.
You may be a senior who already knows what you will be doing next year or you may not. Regardless if you’re a connoisseur of good poetry like myself, I hope that you have been able to garner more from ‘Invictus’ than the spine-chilling sensation of Morgan Freeman narrating it.
- Do not let anyone or anything conquer your soul. You are special!
- Keep your head up! Maintain your integrity. The pride of doing so is fulfilling.
- Beyond your current circumstance lies a stronger you who owns tomorrow.
- You have some power in deciding your fate and exclusive ownership over your soul.
