W E Henley "Invictus" Poem Animation Movie

Heres a virtual movie of the Victorian poet William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903) reading his best loved poem "Invictus". Henley had come close to death as a young man confined to hospital for 18 months with a type of TB that resulted in one of his legs being amputated below the knee. Henley an outspoken athiest always believed it was his strength of will and not any mythical God that had seen him through this very dark episode in his life,plus the brilliance of his doctor Joseph Lister the great physician and pioneer of antisptic surgery who treated him. So this great poem is all about mind over matter,the belief of the human spirit,in a nutshell stoicism.. Henley was an outspoken rumbustuous character and was described by his one time friend Robert Louis Stevenson as "Pirately" with his raucous manner and his one leg.In fact Stevenson said he based "Long John Silver" from his great pirate story "Treasure Island" on Henley.Alas in later life he and Henley were to cease their frienship for ever when Henley published an article accusing Stevenson's wife a writer of plagarism. Kind Regards Jim Clark All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2008 "Invictus" "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 scrolls, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

Author: poetryanimations
Keywords: invictus henley poem animation victorian poetry whitcomb riley ernest dowson christina rossetti mackworth dolben poe
Added: July 22, 2008