Recently, spurred by
the phrase “bloody but unbowed” in an email from my friend Johanna, I posted the poem, Invictus, by
William Ernest Henley from which the quote came. A second phrase “I
am captain of my soul” taken from the poem was used by the
Economist on the occasion of the death of Nelson Mandela. I had not
heard of Henley before, so I became curious about him, and
particularly why he had written such a defiant poem. It appeared in
1875, and (to quote Wikipedia) “was written as a
demonstration of his resilience following the amputation of his foot
due to tubercular infection.”
He is well worthreading about. Amongst other things, he was the inspiration for
Robert Louis Stevenson's character, Long John Silver, in Treasure
Island. Altogether, a good bloke was William Ernest Henley.
No comments:
Post a Comment