Invictus

Tuberculosis of the bone is called Pott's disease. Tuberculosis in general is a bacterial infection, cause by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Primarily attacking the lungs. An extra-pulmonary form of tuberculosis is the Pott's disease. Spreading to the spine, slowly eating up the vertebral column. William Ernest Henley suffered from this when he was 12, and from a relapse when he was 25, affecting his lower leg leading to amputation of the leg. He wrote "Invictus" or "The unconquered" from his hospital bed. The last four lines of the poem always strike me hard, and send me into a trance. The poem, easily understood as his fight against the growing tubercle, has a hint of stoicism - prevalent amongst the 1800s working class Victorians. A patient resignation to life prevailed, "What God gives, He takes away", and William Henley questioned this. It is hard to break the barriers of life and let out THAT free spirit. Even if we try, can we succeed? Even if we do succeed - is it OUR doing?

I will let you read the poem.
PS: Pay attention to the last four lines.

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.