Henley’s suffering from TB did not diminish his life experience. It was during his three year confinement to the hospital that Henley wrote the poem, initially untitled, published with a group of poems known only as “Hospital Poems.” The poem would become known as Invictus well after his death, the title appointed by an editor of anthology of English poetry many years later. Although the treatments proved only partially successful, and he would suffer from complications from TB for his entire life, it did not stop him from living a robust and colorful life. Henley refused to take the advice of doctors to remove his remaining leg to save his life, and spent three years undergoing treatments in a London hospital in his early 20’s. Henley suffered under the weight of TB from the age of 12 onward, the disease infecting his bones which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee in 1868.

Henley wrote it from a hospital bed, while seeking treatments over a three year period to save his remaining leg from amputation as a result of complications from tuberculosis. The circumstances surrounding its creation fueled by his own personal trials. Henley was a poet, a literary critic, an editor of journals and newspapers and a writer, who was highly influential in late 19th century English literature. Henley had a long and productive literary and publishing career for a man that died relatively young. Mandela related many times that his favorite poem was Invictus by William Earnest Henley, the words a personal prayer and inspiration during his 27 years in prison. For a man with such eloquence of speech and writing, I have been surprised that I have yet to find any poetry as part of his legacy. It was the hundredth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birthday this week.

Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) “In my country, we go to prison first and then become President.” Nelson Mandela You Played And Sang A Snatch of Song

I am the captain