William Ernest Henley's Invictus by Kaye Spencer #poetry #firestarpress

I’m continuing this month with another of my favorite poems. My May article HERE was about My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke. My June article HERE was about Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s poem, Casey at the Bat.

The poem I’m writing today is Invictus by William Ernest Henley, which is one of several poems I’ve memorized. You can read the poem HERE.

William Ernest Henley-courtesy Wikipedia

 

Here is a bit about his life¹/² —

Henley was born in Gloucester, England in 1849 (d. 1903). When he was 12, he was diagnosed with tubercular arthritis that resulted in the amputation of one of his legs just below the knee. Years later, his other foot was saved due to the care of Dr. Joseph Lister. Henley spent three years in the hospital in the care of Dr. Lister, who treated his diseased foot with what was at that time a radical approach.

During this hospital stay, Henley began to write poems. This is also when he met, and became friends with, Robert Louis Stevenson. It is said that Stevenson based his Long John Silver character in Treasure Island on Henley.

Henley and his wife had a daughter, Margaret, but she was a sickly child and only lived to be five years old. J. M. Barrie, a friend of the family, was fond of Margaret. In her speech-challenged way, she called Barrie her fwendy-wendy, which inspired Barrie to use the name Wendy in his story of Peter Pan.

Henley wrote Invictus in 1875. He published it in 1888 in his first volume of poetry, A book of verses. Click HERE for more information. His poetry is available through Project Gutenberg. 

Invictus is a poem that speaks to us with a universal message that we must reach way down into our Will to Live, grab it with both hands, and never let go despite the challenges we’re facing or experiencing. It tells us to find the courage to go on in the face of hopelessness—whatever that hopelessness is on an individual and personal basis.

Another way to summarize this poem might be controlling what we can (our reactions and attitudes) when things around us are out of control (life’s not-so-pleasant challenges).

My reaction to this poem is this:

The first stanza is affirmation of the spiritual strength that keeps him going. It’s interesting that he doesn’t narrow his spiritual support to a particular denomination or belief. It’s spiritual strength that means something different to each person who reads this poem.

The second stanza explains his steadfast determination to meet adversity, hopelessness, and challenges head on and not only never back down, but to never complain. As my brother-in-law used to tell his kids when they played baseball and were hit in the chest by the pitcher’s fast ball: Don’t let that kid know he can throw hard enough to hurt you.

The third stanza is another affirmation of standing tall and courageous through it all, while also facing the unknown of the future, or even what comes after death, with dignity and fearlessness.

The fourth stanza (with allusion to a phrase from the King James Bible³) wraps up the poem with a declaration of pride that no matter the dire situation he faced in the past or will face in the future, which are both out of his control, he can control how he reacts. Hence, the famous lines…

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

This poem resonates with me because, like all of us, I’ve experienced hopelessness, heartache, injury, illness, and death. I’ve doubted my purpose in life, but I’ve soldiered on. I’ve put one foot in front of the other with the belief that tomorrow is another day.

Back in my teaching days, one of the graduating classes chose this poem as their creed. As a group, they recited Invictus to the audience on graduation day. It was a proud moment for me as their English teacher that the units we did on poetry all through junior high and high school (through which I dragged more than a few of students kicking and screaming) had been worth it.

Here is Morgan Freeman reciting Invictus. His reading is a tribute to Nelson Mandela, who reportedly relied upon this poem to help him through the ordeal he faced for so many years.

Until next time,
Kaye Spencer

 

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References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ernest_Henley 

2. https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/invictus/

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

THE WRITER’S GRATITUDE LIST, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

With Thanksgiving just around the corner (again!! Where did that year go, anyway?) it’s time to turn our thoughts to things we are thankful for. Big things; little things; things that matter only to ourselves. As a writer, I have a special list of things, and it goes something like this:

Higher Power,

Thank you for the gift of craft,

the quirk that makes me prefer to sit in a darkened room writing about a sunlit beach to being on that sunny shore in person;

that creates a playground in my imagination that Disneyland couldn’t begin to rival;

that opens up a universe otherwise denied me.

Thank you for the gift of eccentricity and introversion,

and for the gift of never being bored.

Thank you for my laptop, where I can instantly erase my mistakes… except when I don’t mean to erase them.

And for spell check… except when it doesn’t know the difference between pain and pane and Payne,

For Thesaurus.com, that fills in the blanks when the only word that comes to mind is “thing.”

Thank you for cats, my muses,

who walk on the keyboard, making

contributions of their own.

Thank you for writers, who inspire me,

readers, who validate me,

editors, who magically see the plot holes,

artists who turn my words into pictures.

Most of all, thank you for letting me be me, this crazy old cat lady writer.

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer at:

Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more

Happy reading!

NOTE: I am having the same trouble with commenting in Blogger as Kaye Spencer. For some reason, I cannot comment or reply to comments. I'm so sorry not to be able to respond. Your comments mean the world to me. This is really frustrating! 

Where Does Inspiration Come From?

I'm old enough to remember television before "reality tv" became a thing. I was underwhelmed when the first reality shows came out. I didn't understand the fascination and swore I would never watch them. As I have done so many times before, I had to eat my words.

There are several reality shows that I enjoy, among them: Chopped, Project Runway, and Ink Master. It took me a while to realize that the shows I like have certain traits in common: competition and creativity. I enjoy watching various creative processes from the beginning to end. Give the contestants, whether they are chefs, fashion designers, or tattoo artists, the same challenge and each one will have a different interpretation and the end results will be completely different. Why? Because each artist is an individual with different experiences and different thought processes. 

Image courtesy of Depositphotos.com

It's the same with writers. Each of us sees the world through different eyes and will be inspired by different things. Romances in particular seem to get a bad rap. Many people think they are all the same. I beg to differ. Each author approaches their stories from their unique perspective.

What inspires me? All sorts of things. My Kudzu Korners series was inspired by a rescue cat named Zombie.

I was also inspired by the story of Melissa Dohme, a domestic abuse survivor who married one of the EMTs who rescued her. The next installment in my Kudzu Korners series, Dances with Werewolves, features a Sydney, a heroine who learns to love after domestic abuse. I didn't specifically have Melissa's story in mind as the when fleshing out Sydney but I know that it was there in the back of my mind as I did.

My most recent inspiration comes from a video I saw on Facebook. You can view it HERE. There will be a scene loosely based on this video in an upcoming inspirational romance titled Choosing Love.

What inspires you?

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What's in a Name?

Finding inspiration and developing a plot is just part of what is involved in writing a story. Once we have all of these characters running around, they need names. So, where do the character names come from? For me, everywhere.

I’m lucky. My day job is IT customer support so, I am exposed to a lot of different names on a daily basis. I keep a notebook in my purse so I can make a list of the names that appeal to me. So far, my list of male names is longer than my list of female names. But, that’s okay. I’ve got female names covered because I really love the old-fashioned girl’s names like Emma, Sophia, Phoebe, etc.

Family names also come into play. The heroine in Dial V for Vampire is named Maggie, which was my paternal grandmother’s name. A secondary character is named Ida, which was my maternal grandmother’s first name. (She went by her middle name, Ruth).

Early in my writing career I learned the importance of creating a master list of names that I have used. How did I learn this? I realized that I had given a secondary character in two different stories the same name. Oops. (Apparently, I really like the name Liv.) 

Image courtesy of www.123rf.com

 

Another thing that I have to be careful about is using names that start with the same letter. We’ve all read those books that have characters with such similar names that it hurts the story because we spend so much time trying to remember which character is which. The editor for Dial V pointed out that I was in danger of doing this – I had three characters named Maggie, Mae, and Mac. Maggie and Mae were non-negotiable so Mac became Lou. It wasn’t until I was going through my father’s things after his death that I discovered that his mother’s middle name was Lou. (Yes, you read that right. His mother’s middle name was Lou.)  I thought that was a pretty cool coincidence. (And, had I known this when I was a child, I might have disliked my own middle name less, LOL.)

Of course, even knowing my tendency for using names beginning with the same letter, I did it again! I’m now working on revisions to the next Kudzu Korners novel, Dances with Werewolves. Maggie and Mae both make appearances but, I needed a name for the villain. So, what name did I choose? Mitch. *facepalm* I reached out to my Facebook friends and followers for suggestions and did they ever come through! I wound up getting the perfect name for my villain (Vince) and two more names that will be used in future stories.

So, do you have any favorite names? Let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for more inspiration!

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