William Ernest Henley composed “Invictus” in 1875 while in a hospital infirmary, recovering from a surgery that had saved his leg from amputation. Henley had been diagnosed with tubercular arthritis when he was twelve, and several years later he lost one of his legs to the disease. Thus, when he underwent an experimental procedure in 1875, he must have felt a surge of defiant joy after coming through the surgery with his remaining leg still intact. Though at no point in “Invictus” does Henley reveal the conditions of the poem’s composition, the story of his triumph against chronic illness remains well known. For many readers and critics, then, this story is inextricably tied to the poem’s key theme of the resilience of the human spirit. Indeed, the speaker of the poem adopts a defiant tone of self-determination, repeatedly proclaiming that no matter what adversity they face, they are “the master of [their] fate” and “the captain of [their] soul” (lines 15 and 16). Yet in addition to the most obvious theme of resilience, the poem also uses biblical allusions and symbols to explore the question of how to retain faith in the individual self in the face of diminishing religious faith.

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