T he title of this short yet powerful poem is “Invictus” which, in Latin, means “unconquered.” It was written by the English author William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) who in 1875, was recovering from the amputation of his leg due to sever tuberculosis. And, although his knife was edgeless, [23] The journal's outlook was conservative and often sympathetic to the growing imperialism of its time. William Ernest Henley did a great job of giving details and thoughts, so the reader could imagine what he was going through. It took the pioneering skills of surgeon Joseph Lister of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to avert the second amputation. Specifically the poem "Suicide" depicts not only the deepest depths of the human emotions, but also the horrid conditions of the working class Victorian poor in the U.K. As Henley observed firsthand, the stress of poverty and the vice of addiction pushed a man to the brink of human endurance. In 1889, Henley became the editor of the "Scots Observer" and two years later, the magazine moved to London, becoming the "National Observer," which Henley continued to edit until 1893. [19], As Andrzej Diniejko notes, Henley and the "Henley Regatta" (the name by which his followers were humorously referred) "promoted realism and opposed Decadence" through their own works, and, in Henley's case, "through the works... he published in the journals he edited. [3]:35[6][7] The early years of Henley's life were punctuated by periods of extreme pain due to the draining of his tuberculosis abscesses. The loss of his daughter was a deeply traumatizing event in Henley's life but did not truly dampen his outlook on life as a whole. "Some Memories and Impressions – William Ernest Henley". In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Local Schools Examination and set off to London to establish himself as a journalist. William Ernest Henley was born in Gloucester on 23 August 1849, the eldest of six children. The sum total of Henley's professional and artistic efforts is said to have made him an influential voice in late Victorian England, perhaps with a role as central in his time as that of Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth century. [4], In 1889, Henley became editor of the Scots Observer, an Edinburgh journal of the arts and current events. Made the world so black a riddle He continued to work with the journal after it was moved to London in 1891 to become National Observer. He was cremated and his ashes … [6][14] In the 1891 Scotland Census, William and Anna are recorded as living with their two-year-old daughter, Margaret Emma Henley (b. His influence in the artistic circle became even higher during his career as editor of journals and magazines. Deep in his nature lay an inner well of cheerfulness, and a spontaneous joy of living, that nothing could drain dry, though it dwindled sadly after the crowning affliction of his little daughter's death. He left London and sought treatment in Edinburgh from Joseph Lister, whose theories of antiseptic surgery were still not universally accepted. A fixture in London literary circles, the one-legged Henley was also the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's character Long John Silver (Treasure Island, 1883), while his young daughter Margaret inspired J. M. Barrie's choice of the name Wendy for the heroine of his play Peter Pan (1904). In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Local Schools Examination. Death of William Ernest Henley. He received education at the Crypt School in Gloucester from 1861 to 1867. Henley gained a reputation as an astute poet in the late Victorian era. Draft #2 "Invictus" is a poem filled with the interpretations and vision of the author. After successfully passing his exams, William Ernest Henley moved to London, where he sought to work as a journalist. William Ernest Henley was born on 23 August 1849 in Gloucester. Born in England at a time of reformation, this well-educated man from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland was brimming with ideas which he poured into his writings. When they came, and found, and saved him. He was sinking fast towards one, Latin for "invincible", the poem "Invictus" is a deeply descriptive and motivational work filled with vivid imagery. From the age of 12, Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone. The poem is most known for its themes of will-power and strength in the face of adversity, much of which is drawn from the horrible fate assigned to many amputees of the day— gangrene and death. This accident caused his latent tuberculosis to flare up, and he died of it on 11 July 1903, at the age of 53, at his home in Woking, Surrey. William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849 – 11 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor in late Victorian England. [20][21] He is remembered most for his 1875 poem "Invictus", one of his "hospital poems" that were composed during his isolation as a consequence of early, life-threatening battles with tuberculosis; this set of works, one of several types and themes he engaged during his career, are said to have developed the artistic motif of the "poet as a patient" and to have anticipated modern poetry "not only in form, as experiments in free verse containing abrasive narrative shifts and internal monologue, but also in subject matter."[2]. William Ernest was the oldest of six children, five sons and a daughter; his father died in 1868. Ultimately, he needed a below knee amputation of the left lower limb to treat the disease invading his bones (see Operation). Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis when he was only 12 years-old. William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor who in his journals introduced the early work of many of the great English writers of the 1890s. Henley contracted tuberculosis of the bone at age 12, causing the amputation of his left leg below the knee in 1869. Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease which is caused by a bacterial infection which is generally spread through the air. That he plunged for a solution; Between 1861 and 1867, Henley was a pupil at the Crypt Grammar School. [18] Margaret did not survive long enough to read the book; she died in 1894 at the age of five and was buried at the country estate of her father's friend, Harry Cockayne Cust, in Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire. Having lost one leg at 16 to arthritic tuberculosis, Henley was determined to try anything to save his other leg. "[13], Henley married Hannah (Anna) Johnson Boyle (1855–1925) on 22 January 1878. He was an English poet, writer, critic, and editor in the late Victorian period. Henley was born in Gloucester and was the oldest of a family of six children, five sons and a daughter. He received education at the Crypt School in Gloucester from 1861 to 1867. With four stanzas and sixteen lines, each containing eight syllables, the poem has a rather uncomplicated structure. 'Invictus': 'Invictus' was written by the English poet William Ernest Henley in 1875. Henley was a writer during the Victorian era who faced a good deal of challenges in his life. He was the first of six children by Mary Morgan and William Henley. GENRE It was also from this time that William suffered from tuberculosis of the bone that resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the… Forming the subject matter of the "hospital poems" were often Henley's observations of the plights of the patients in the hospital beds around him. Discover the real story, facts, and details of William Ernest Henley. [2] As an editor of a series of literary magazines and journals, Henley was empowered to choose each issue's contributors, as well as to offer his own essays, criticism, and poetic works; like Johnson, he said to have "exerted a considerable influence on the literary culture of his time. Born in Stirling, she was the youngest daughter of Edward Boyle, a mechanical engineer from Edinburgh, and his wife, Mary Ann née Mackie. Literary Analysis Essay of William Ernest Henley ‘Invictus ... Invictus Analysis William Ernest Henley’s Invictus is a poem that conveys the idea of dealing with struggles head-on. 'The Great Replacement', Section IV, 'In Conclusion', P.70, by Brenton Tarrant, issued 15 March 2019. The enigmatic man, William Ernest Henley was a prolific writer of the 1800s. Low, Sidney. [3]:35 His work over the next eight years was interrupted by long stays in hospitals, because his right foot had also become diseased. The struggle, in this situation, is a reference to Henley’s bout of tuberculosis of the bone, which led to his leg being amputated. [16][17], After Robert Louis Stevenson received a letter from Henley labelled "Private and Confidential" and dated 9 March 1888, in which the latter accused Stevenson's new wife Fanny of plagiarizing his cousin Katherine de Mattos' writing in the story "The Nixie," the two men ended their friendship, though a correspondence of sorts did resume later after their mutual friends intervened. Henley's 1887 Villon's Straight Tip to All Cross Coves (a free translation of Francoise Villon's Tout aux tavernes et aux filles[44]) was recited by Ricky Jay as part of his solo show, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants (1994). The paper had almost as many writers as readers, as Henley said, and its fame was confined mainly to the literary class, but it was a lively and influential contributor to the literary life of its era. [27] After Henley's death in 1903 an acquaintance in Boston wrote a piece about her impression of Henley, saying of him, "There was in him something more than the patient resignation of the religious sufferer, who had bowed himself to the uses of adversity. What is there I would not do, England my own?[39]. He was on the verge of losing his right leg until he became a patient of the immortal surgeon Joseph Lister. When William was sixteen years old, he had issues with his leg due to tuberculosis. This degree of illness and surgery in the 1800’s very often lead to fatal outcomes. During 1892, Henley also published three plays written with Stevenson: Andrzej Diniejko, 2011, "William Ernest Henley: A Biographical Sketch," at, This page was last edited on 11 January 2021, at 16:34. William Ernest Henley’s Invictus is a poem that conveys the idea of dealing with struggles head-on. [38] Henley's poem, "Pro Rege Nostro", became popular during the First World War as a piece of patriotic verse, containing the following refrain, What have I done for you, England, my England? It was also from this time that William suffered from tuberculosis of the bone that resulted in the amputation of … He died at his residence in Woking, London. In that fictionalized account, the poem becomes a central inspirational gift from actor Morgan Freeman's Mandela to Matt Damon's Springbok rugby team captain Francois Pienaar, on the eve of the underdog Springboks' victory in the post-apartheid 1995 Rugby World Cup held in South Africa.[43]. [8] According to Robert Louis Stevenson's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by Stevenson's real-life friend Henley. In the late 20th-early 21st Centuries, Henley's most well-known poem "Invictus" has been cited a number of times in post-event statements by Libertarian and Ethno-Nationalist revolutionaries who have engaged in violent politically motivated public acts, as an explanation/justification for their actions, including Timothy McVeigh, an American citizen who attacked the Government of the United States with a bombing in 1995,[29] and Brenton Tarrant, an Australian who committed a massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on 15 March 2019. In 1889 the Chicago Daily Tribune ran an article about the promise that Henley showed in the field of poetry. However, Henley's younger brother Joseph recalled how after draining his joints the young Henley would "Hop about the room, laughing loudly and playing with zest to pretend he was beyond the reach of pain". "[4] In addition to his inviting its articles and editing all content, Henley anonymously contributed tens of poems to the journal, some of which were described by contemporaries as "brilliant" (later published in a compilation by Gleeson White). They had a daughter, Margaret Henley, who had frail health and speech difficulty. Henley was a great poet, critic as well as an editor and none of the success in his life came easy. In 1873, his other leg was also affected by tuberculosis, but thanks to the innovative treatment of Dr Joseph Lister, who used his new antiseptic surgical method at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, it was not amputated. Henley contracted tuberculosis of the bone at age 12, causing the am… [3]:31 Nevertheless, Henley was disappointed in the school itself, considered an inferior sister to the Cathedral School, and wrote about its shortcomings in a 1900 article in the Pall Mall magazine. 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