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WILLIAM ERNEST HENSLEY |
“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.”
Years later, after I had graduated
law school, had spent a few years practicing law and had experienced more of
the “punishments of the scroll,” I revisited the poem. This was back in 1984,
and I was part of a trial team prosecuting a Chicago-based drug smuggling ring. We were trying the case on a change of venue to Tallahassee. The trial was
long, and I spent many lonely nights in a motel room reading and writing
poetry. The poetry I read was very good. The poetry I wrote, not so much.
It turned out, upon rereading Invictus,
I realized that the poem was written from an atheistic point of view. Read the
original poem and see if you agree with me.
“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.”
Now I have many bad qualities, but
being an atheist isn’t one of them. I still liked the last quatrain, but the rest
of the poem gave me a sour taste in my mouth. So one night, as I battled
insomnia in my motel room, I revised the poem, in much the same fashion as
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias
was modified by Morris Gilbert Bishop in
his poem Ozymandias Revisited.
My modification, which I titled Invictus
Revisited, went like this:
“Out of the night that covers me,
“Black as the Pit from pole to
pole,
“I thank the Lord of Calvary
“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 not the Horror of the
shade,
“And the false menace of the
years
“Finds, and shall find, me
unafraid.”
“It matters not how strait the
gate,
“How charged with punishments the
scroll,
“God is the master of my fate:
“He is the captain of my soul.”