'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' - William Ernest Henley
Who was he? His full name is William Ernest Henley. He was a poet editor of many works and a critic.
His history
William Ernest Henley was born on August the 23rd in Gloucester, United Kingdom. He was named after his father William Henley (1826-1868) who died in poverty. He was eldest of a family of six (five sons and a daughter). Henley's mother was Mary Morgan who decended from the family of the poet and critic Joseph Warton.His father was a struggling bookseller who died when Henley was a teen. He was educated at crypt grammar school where he studied with the poet T.E. Brown and the University of St. Andrews At age 12 diagnosed with tubercular arthritis that necessitated the amputation of one of his legs just below the knee. While he was in hospital he wrote his first poem "Invictus". He later edited the Scots Observer (later became the National observer) and befriended writer Rudyard Kipling. Magazine of Art, in which he lauded the work of emerging artists James McNeill Whistler and Auguste Rodin. Henley was a close friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who reportedly based his Long John Silver character in Treasure Island in part on Henley. Context (why did he write this way) He wrote his first poem "Invictus" while in an infirmary after a radical surgery on his leg. He was best remembered for it in 1875, which reflects his resilient struggle with the deadly disease. His poems were written in technique of interior monologue and reveal a patient's impression of the dull and tedious hospital tmosphere