INVICTUS ACEO

INVICTUS ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

A stanza from a poem has been coming in and out of my thoughts lately.


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.



I'm writing it that way because that's the way I kept hearing it in my thoughts; with the unafraid after a long pause. I searched for the whole poem yesterday and found it. It's called Invictus. Invictus is a Latin word meaning unconquered.

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.

As you can see it's written a little different than Ive been hearing it but that is really of no consequence. After reading the entire thing and seeing that it ends with another phrase Ive wondered about I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
I sat and cried. The poets name was William Ernest Henley.. A man of incredible strength with a life that would have crippled lesser people. Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone at age 12 leading to the amputation of his left leg below the knee. He faced amputation of his right leg several years and kept it because he refused the procedure. He spent 3 years in the hospital (1873-18750 due the disease in his right leg and it's believed her wrote Invictus during that hospitalization.

The picture I used for this card is of a sidewalk along a beach road... A path going into the horizon. A metaphor for me of path your life takes, walking forward towards a place you can't see in the distance, the place being your own life, your future. Unconquered. Unafraid. Moving forward no matter how straight the gait.... how difficult because you are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul.