BIB_ID
103927
Accession number
MA 1617.587
Creator
Henley, William Ernest, 1849-1903.
Display Date
Place not specified, 1875 April 7-10.
Credit line
Purchased as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke, 1955.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 25.7 x 20.6 cm
Notes
"Invictus" was first published in A Book of Verses (London: David Nutt, 1888), pp. 56-57, in the section "Life and Death (Echoes)."
Henley dated the first three poems April 7-8, 1875 and "A Thanksgiving" April 9-10, 1875.
With penciled revisions and comments in the hand of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Henley dated the first three poems April 7-8, 1875 and "A Thanksgiving" April 9-10, 1875.
With penciled revisions and comments in the hand of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Provenance
Purchased as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke, 1955.
Summary
A fair copy of three poems, each a poem of three 4-line stanzas, individually subtitled "I, II, III" under the title "Commonplace Tragedy," and a fourth poem of four 4-line stanzas titled "A Thanksgiving." The fourth poem is an early version of "Invictus." Text as follows: "From brief delights that rise to me / Out of unfathomable dole, / I thank whatever gods there be / For mine unconquerable soul / In the strong clutch of Circumstance / It has not winced, nor groaned aloud. / Before the blows of eyeless Chance / My head is bloody, but unbowed. / I front unfeared the threat of Space / and dwindle into dark again. / My work is done, I take my place / Among the years that wait for men. / My life, my broken life, must be / One long unrecoverable dole. / I thank the gods -- They gave to me / a dauntless & defiant soul."
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