The poem was read by US POWs in North Vietnamese prisons. James Stockdale recalls being passed the last stanza, written with rat droppings on toilet paper, from fellow prisoner David Hatcher.
While incarcerated at Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners who were empowered by its message of self-mastery.In a speech to the House of Commons on 9 September 1941, Winston Churchill paraphrased the last two lines of the poem, stating “We are still masters of our fate.Instead, he chose to travel to Edinburgh to enlist the services of the distinguished English surgeon Joseph Lister, who was able to save Henley’s remaining leg after multiple surgical interventions on the foot. While recovering in the infirmary, Henley was moved to write the verses that eventually became “Invictus”.Ī memorable evocation of steadfast courage, the poem has often inspired strength during times of extreme duress: When Henley was 16 years old, his left leg was amputated due to complications arising from tuberculosis. In the early 1870s, he was told that his right leg would also require amputation. William Henley’s ‘Invictus’ was written in 1875 when the author was still in his mid-twenties, and originally published in 1888 without its distinctive title which is Latin for ‘unconquered’.
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