William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his
1875 poem "Invictus".
Life and career Henley was born in Gloucester and was the
oldest of a family of six children, five sons and a daughter. His father, William, a bookseller
and stationer, died in 1868 and was survived by young children and creditors. His mother,
Mary Morgan, was descended from the poet and critic Joseph Wharton.
Between 1861 and 1867, Henley was a pupil at the The Crypt School, Gloucester. A commission
had recently attempted to revive the school by securing as headmaster the brilliant and
academically distinguished Thomas Edward Brown. Though Brown's tenure was relatively brief,
he was a "revelation" to Henley because the poet was "a man of genius — the first I'd
ever seen". Brown and Henley began a lifelong friendship, and Henley wrote an admiring obituary
to Brown in the New Review: "He was singularly kind to me at a moment when I needed kindness
even more than I needed encouragement". From the age of 12, Henley suffered from tuberculosis
of the bone that resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee in 1868–69.
According to Robert Louis Stevenson's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver
was inspired by Stevenson's real-life friend Henley. Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne,
described Henley as "... a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard
and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he
had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet". In a letter to
Henley after the publication of Treasure Island, Stevenson wrote, "I will now make a confession:
It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver ...
the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you."
Frequent illness often kept him from school, although the misfortunes of his father's business
may also have contributed. In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Local Schools Examination
and soon moved to London where he attempted to establish himself as a journalist. However,
his work over the next eight years was interrupted by long stays in the hospital because his
right foot had also become diseased. Henley contested the diagnosis that a second amputation
was the only means to save his life by seeking a consultation with the pioneering surgeon
Joseph Lister at The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. After three years in the hospital, during
which Henley wrote and published the poems collected as In Hospital, he was discharged.
Although Lister's treatment had not effected a complete cure, Henley enjoyed a relatively
active life for nearly thirty more years. On 22 January 1878, he married Hannah Johnson
Boyle, the youngest daughter of Edward Boyle, a mechanical engineer from Edinburgh, and
his wife, Mary Ann née Mackie. Henley's sickly young daughter, Margaret Henley,
was immortalized by J. M. Barrie in his children's classic, Peter Pan: Unable to speak clearly,
young Margaret had called her friend Barrie her "fwendy-wendy", resulting in the use of
"Wendy" in the book. Margaret did not survive long enough to read the book; she died on
11 February 1894 at the age of five and was buried at the country estate of her father's
friend, Harry Cockayne Cust, in Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire.
After his recovery, Henley earned his living as a publisher. In 1889 he became editor of
the Scots Observer, an Edinburgh journal of the arts and current events. After its headquarters
were transferred to London in 1891, it became the National Observer and remained under Henley's
editorship until 1893. The paper had almost as many writers as readers, said Henley, and
its fame was confined mainly to the literary class, but it was a lively and influential
contributor to the literary life of its era. Henley had an editor's gift for identifying
new talent, and "the men of the Scots Observer," said Henley affectionately, usually justified
his support. Charles Whibley was Henley's friend and helped him edit the Observer. The
journal's outlook was conservative and often sympathetic to the growing imperialism of
its time. Among other services to literature it published Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room
Ballads. Henley died of tuberculosis in 1903 at the
age of 53 at his home in Woking, and his ashes were interred in his daughter's grave in the
churchyard at Cockayne Hatley in Bedfordshire. Works
Arguably his best-remembered work is the poem "Invictus", written in 1875. It is said that
this was written as a demonstration of his resilience following the amputation of his
foot due to tubercular infection. This passionate and defiant poem should be compared with his
beautiful and contemplative acceptance of death and dying in the poem "Margaritae Sorori".
The poems of In Hospital are also noteworthy as some of the earliest free verse written
in England. With J.S. Farmer, Henley edited a seven volume dictionary of Slang and its
analogues which inspired his two translations into thieves' slang of ballades by François
Villon. In 1890, Henley published Views and Reviews,
a volume of notable criticisms, which he described as "less a book than a mosaic of scraps and
shreds recovered from the shot rubbish of some fourteen years of journalism". The criticisms,
covering a wide range of authors were remarkable for their insight. In 1892, he published a
second volume of poetry, named after the first poem, "The Song of the Sword" but re-titled
"London Voluntaries" after another section in the second edition. Robert Louis Stevenson
wrote that he had not received the same thrill of poetry so intimate and so deep since George
Meredith's "Joy of Earth" and "Love in the Valley". "I did not guess you were so great
a magician. These are new tunes; this is an undertone of the true Apollo. These are not
verse; they are poetry". During 1892, Henley also published three plays written with Stevenson:
Beau Austin, Deacon Brodie and Admiral Guinea. In 1895, Henley's poem, "Macaire", was published
in a volume with the other plays. Deacon Brodie was produced in Edinburgh in 1884 and later
in London. Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced Beau Austin at the Haymarket on 3 November
1890. Henley's poem, "Pro Rege Nostro", became popular
during the First World War as a piece of patriotic verse. It contains the following refrain:
What have I done for you, England, my England? What is there I would not do, England my own?
The poem and its sentiments have since been parodied by those unhappy with the jingoism
they feel it expresses or the propagandistic use it is put to. "England, My England", a
short story by D. H. Lawrence and also England, Their England the novel by A. G. Macdonell
both use the phrase. It is also referred to in Alan Bennett's satirical play Habeas Corpus.
While incarcerated on Robben Island Nelson Mandela recited the poem "Invictus" to other
prisoners and felt empowered by its message of self-mastery. In the film Invictus, produced
and directed by Clint Eastwood, the poem is cited several times. It becomes the central
inspirational gift from Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, to Springbok rugby team captain
François Pienaar, played by Matt Damon, in advance of the post-apartheid Rugby World
Cup hosted in 1995 by South Africa and won by the underdog Springboks.
Notes
References This article incorporates text from a publication
now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Henley, William Ernest". Encyclopædia
Britannica. Cambridge University Press. External links
Works by William Henley at Project Gutenberg Poetry Archive: 137 poems of William Ernest
Henley "The Difference", a poem by Florence Earle
Coates