Invictus
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)
Out of the night that covers me,
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Whatever Gods May Be: Giving Thanks in the Dark
In Invictus, William Ernest Henley gives thanks before anything has improved, to gods he won’t name, for something no one can take from him. It’s a kind of gratitude that doesn’t wait for good times.
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Out of the Night: How Invictus Travels from Darkness to the Self
Invictus begins surrounded by night and ends with a claim about the self. Following William Ernest Henley’s poem stanza by stanza shows a route through hard times that still holds.
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Bloody, but Unbowed: The Honest Courage of Invictus
One line from William Ernest Henley’s Invictus admits the wound before it claims anything else — and that honesty is why it still keeps people company through hard days.
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