Nelson Mandela
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- No Longer Fit To Lead. Brenda Mazibuko: You're risking your political capital, you're risking your future as our leader. Nelson Mandela: The day I am afraid to do that is the day I am no longer fit to lead.
- Ready To Forgive. Nerine: Thinking about tomorrow? Francois Pienaar: No. Tomorrow's taken care of, one way or another. I was thinking about how you spend 30 years in a tiny cell, and come out ready to forgive the people who put you there.
- It Is A Rough Game. Television Announcer: Tell us Mr. President, have you always been a rugby fan? Nelson Mandela: People don't realize that I played rugby myself when I was a student at Fort Hare.
- Still Be In Jail. Colleague: According to the experts, we'll reach the Quarter Finals, and no further. Nelson Mandela: According to the experts, you and I should still be in jail.
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Invictus study guide contains a biography of director Clint Eastwood, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes.
- Summary
- Invictus Meaning
- Structure
- Literary Devices
- Themes
- Tone and Mood
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- Historical Context
- Nelson Mandela and Invictus
- About William Ernest Henley
‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley(Poems)talks about the invincibility of a person who trusts himself or herself. In this poem, the speaker is faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges. Throughout it all, however, he perseveres and is successful in his endeavors. He faces each challenge with courage and is not afraid, and he can surmount any ...
‘Invictus‘ is a Latin adjective meaning “unconquered, unsubdued, invincible.” It is a combination of two Latin words, “in,” meaning “not, opposite of” and “victus.” The word “victus” has come from the past participle of “vincere,” meaning “to conquer, overcome.” Collectively, the word “Invictus” means one who cannot be conquered, meaning unconquera...
‘Invictus,’ a Victorian poem, is made up of four stanzas and sixteen lines, with four lines in each stanza. It has a set rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gbgb. The poem also has a set metrical pattern. Each line of this poem contains eight syllables, and the stress falls on the second syllable of each foot, a segment of two syllables. Hence, the poem...
The poem begins with a personification. Here, the poet personifies the “night” that covers the speaker in “Black.” In the second line, there is a simile, and the comparison is made between the darkness of night and the color of the pit. The first stanza ends with an ironic note. In the second stanza, the poet uses a metaphorin “fell clutch of circu...
In ‘Invictus,’ W. E. Henley is concerned with several themes such as suffering and rejuvenation, fatalism, free will, homocentrism or anthropocentrism, realism, and agnosticism. The most important theme of the poem is suffering and rejuvenation. Here, the speaker talks about the sufferings in his life and how he conquered everything that came his w...
The overall tone of the poem is optimistic, direct, rational, and ironic. The mood of the poem is dark and gloomy. It seems as if the poet wrote this poem from the perspectiveof a person who is courageously fighting the odds of his or her life in a dark and upsetting phase. Moreover, the mood changes as the poem approaches the end. The expression o...
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘Invictus,’ the speaker immediately sets the stage for his reader. He says, “Out of the night that covers me,/Black as the Pit from pole to pole.” Henley’s use of imageryis strong from the very first line of the poem. It is quite easy for the reader to picture a complete night. In these two lines, the poet also creates a metaphor, as the night to which the speaker refers can represent any quandary in which the speaker finds himself. Moreover, it is important here to thi...
Stanza Two
The second stanza is a continuation of the first. Henley writes, “In the fell clutch of circumstance/ I have not winced nor cried aloud.” In other words, the speaker has not allowed himself to become a victim of the events that have transpired in his life. In these lines, Henley personifies circumstance, giving it human-like qualities to show just how tightly the events of one’s life can take hold. Throughout all that he has been dealt with, the speaker has not even cringed or cried about wha...
Stanza Three
The third stanza of ‘Invictus’ takes a darker turn, for the speaker refers to an afterlife that is filled with horror. Henley writes, “Beyond this place of wrath and tears/ Looms but the Horror of the shade.” The speaker seems to be saying here that he knows that what he has endured in this life is nothing compared to what lies ahead in the “shade,” which is a reference to death. He again tells his reader that he does not fear anything. Lines eleven and twelve read, “And yet the menace of the...
Many scholars believe Henley wrote this poem about himself since he wrote it while lying in a hospital bed. Henley was very sick as a young boy, which later resulted in him contracting an infection that spread to his leg. The leg was amputated, and doctors thought they would have to do the same to the other leg, as well, but Henley persuaded anothe...
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a South African revolutionary and President of South Africa (1994-1999), was influenced by the verbal energy and inspirational elements of Henley’s poem, ‘Invictus’. When he was incarcerated at the Robben Island prison, he recited this poem to other prisoners. The message of self-mastery in this poem touched Mandela deepl...
William Ernest Henley(Poems) was born on 23 August 1849 in Gloucester. He was an English poet, writer, critic, and editor in the late Victorian period. He wrote several books of poetry, but he is most famous for his 1875 poem ‘Invictus.’ From the age of 12, Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone. The ailment resulted in the amputation of his...
- Male
- Poetry Analyst
Invictus. By William Ernest Henley. 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.
This famous quote, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” appears at the end of one of the best poems of the Victorian era, ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley. This motivational poem talks about a person’s battle with mental and physical impediments.
Invictus. William Ernest Henley. 1849 –. 1903. 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.
