William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henleywas an influential poet, critic and editor of the late-Victorian era in England that is spoken of as having as central a role in his time as Samuel Johnson had in the eighteenth century. He is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus," a piece which recurs in popular awareness. It is one of his hospital poems from early battles with tuberculosis and is said to have developed the artistic motif of poet as a patient, and...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth23 August 1849
wrath tears unconquerable-will
beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade
life fate punishment
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.
pain men may
Men may scoff, and men may pray, But they pay Every pleasure with a pain.
strength giving-up dont-give-up
Out of the night that covers me, Black is 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.
life lasts foundation
Life is worth Living Through every grain of it, From the foundations To the last edge Of the cornerstone, death.
life ocean men
Were I so tall as to reach the pole or grasp the ocean at a span, I must be measured by my soul. The mind is the standard of the man.
life running spring
Love, which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb. Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom. Love, which is lust, is the Main of Desire. Love, which is lust, is the Centric Fire. So man and woman will keep their trust, Till the very Springs of the Sea run dust. Yea, each with the other will lose and win, Till the very Sides of the Grave fall in. For the strife of Love's the abysmal strife, And the word of Love is the Word of Life. And they that go with the Word unsaid, Though they seem of the living, are damned and dead.
life years rose
Who but knows How it goes! Life's a last year's Nightingale, Love's a last year's rose.
life dream fighting
Life - give me life until the end, That at the very top of being, The battle-spirit shouting in my blood, Out of the reddest hell of the fight I may be snatched and flung Into the everlasting lull, The immortal, incommunicable dream.
stars sleep night
Night with her train of stars And her great gift of sleep.
hey tables napkins
[T]hey stretch you on a table. Then they bid you close your eyelids, And they mask you with a napkin, And the anæsthetic reaches Hot and subtle through your being.
home sea tree
For it's home, dearie, home--it's home I want to be. Our topsails are hoisted, and we'll away to sea. O, the oak and the ash and the bonnie birken tree They're all growing green in the old countrie.
death dies
So many are the deaths we die Before we can be dead indeed.
unconquerable-will statistics chance
Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.