Invictus
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:10 amFrom The Times of London January 14, 2010
Matthew Parris
Invicta: what a terrible choice of poem
The choice of Gordon Brown is also the choice of the Oklahoma bomber
Forgive the wry smile as I read that the Prime Minister finds strength in the poem Invictus (“Unconquered”) written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley. Nelson Mandela (Gordon Brown says) sought inspiration in this too.
I love Invictus, but it is absolutely not the uplifting and affirming work that former President Mandela seems to suppose. It’s a dark, resentful poem, snarling at destiny and even at the Final Judgment.
The often-quoted phrases may be “bloody but unbowed” and “I am the captain of my soul” but it’s the first lines (Out of the night that covers me/ Black as the pit from pole to pole . . .) that set the tone before going on to anticipate life’s end (Beyond this place of wrath and tears/ Looms but the Horror of the shade . . .), then shake a fist even at the Pearly Gates (It matters not how strait the gate/ How charged with punishments the scroll . . . ). The underlying message of this cry of rage, arrogance and self-pity is almost a homage to self-destruction. It asserts a man’s right, even in the face of Providence, to bring the whole damn thing down on his head if he wants to.
Invictus was chosen by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, as his only statement before his judicial execution in 2001. The mass-murderer had killed 168 innocent people by collapsing an office block on to them. At his execution McVeigh passed a handwritten copy of Invictus to his warden, then went to his death in silence.
The truth to which McVeigh’s and Mr Brown’s chosen verse points this reader is that, although we cannot win by an act of will alone, nobody can deny us the right, by an act of will alone, to lose. Less sensationally than McVeigh, Mr Brown now looks set to demonstrate this.
In spite of the McVeigh connection I personally find it inspiring
Here is the poem:
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 scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Matthew Parris
Invicta: what a terrible choice of poem
The choice of Gordon Brown is also the choice of the Oklahoma bomber
Forgive the wry smile as I read that the Prime Minister finds strength in the poem Invictus (“Unconquered”) written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley. Nelson Mandela (Gordon Brown says) sought inspiration in this too.
I love Invictus, but it is absolutely not the uplifting and affirming work that former President Mandela seems to suppose. It’s a dark, resentful poem, snarling at destiny and even at the Final Judgment.
The often-quoted phrases may be “bloody but unbowed” and “I am the captain of my soul” but it’s the first lines (Out of the night that covers me/ Black as the pit from pole to pole . . .) that set the tone before going on to anticipate life’s end (Beyond this place of wrath and tears/ Looms but the Horror of the shade . . .), then shake a fist even at the Pearly Gates (It matters not how strait the gate/ How charged with punishments the scroll . . . ). The underlying message of this cry of rage, arrogance and self-pity is almost a homage to self-destruction. It asserts a man’s right, even in the face of Providence, to bring the whole damn thing down on his head if he wants to.
Invictus was chosen by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, as his only statement before his judicial execution in 2001. The mass-murderer had killed 168 innocent people by collapsing an office block on to them. At his execution McVeigh passed a handwritten copy of Invictus to his warden, then went to his death in silence.
The truth to which McVeigh’s and Mr Brown’s chosen verse points this reader is that, although we cannot win by an act of will alone, nobody can deny us the right, by an act of will alone, to lose. Less sensationally than McVeigh, Mr Brown now looks set to demonstrate this.
In spite of the McVeigh connection I personally find it inspiring
Here is the poem:
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 scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
