Annotated Content Historical Context - Detailed 19th Century Historical Map William Ernest Henley (August 23, 1849 – July 11, 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Henley wrote several books of poetry, but his poem "Invictus" from 1875 is the one for which he is best known. The one-legged Henley, a fixture in London literary circles, may have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's character Long John Silver (Treasure Island, 1883), while his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie's choice of the name Wendy for the heroine of his play Peter Pan (1904). "Invictus” (published with no title in 1888 in his first volume of poems, Book of Verses , in the section Life and Death (Echoes) , a remarkable evocation of Victorian stoicism—the "stiff upper lip" of self-discipline and fortitude under hardship, which popular culture turned into a British character trait—and it remains a cultural touchstone that simply links generations in a society. Sections: IN HOSPITAL BRIC-À-BRAC ECHOES (Poem IV known as Invictus, originally published with no title LONDON VOLUNTARIES RHYMES AND RHYTHMS Sneak Peek 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.