INVICTUS REVISITED

WILLIAM ERNEST HENSLEY

When I was in high school, I came across the poem Invictus by William Ernest Hensley. I didn’t pay much attention to the entire poem, but I did like the final quatrain. It resonated with my outlook on life at that time, and I memorized it:

 

“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.”