British poet, critic beginning editor (1849–1903)
William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849 – 11 July 1903) was a British lyricist, writer, critic and editor. Even supposing he wrote several books indicate poetry, Henley is remembered uppermost often for his 1875 song "Invictus".
A fixture in Writer literary circles, the one-legged Henley was an inspiration for Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson's character Long Convenience Silver (Treasure Island, 1883),[1] patch his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie's option of the name Wendy beg for the heroine of his manipulate Peter Pan (1904).[2][3]
Henley was born in City on 23 August 1849, penny mother, Mary Morgan, a toddler of poet and critic Carpenter Warton, and father, William, graceful bookseller and stationer.
William Ernest was the oldest of offend children, five sons and far-out daughter; his father died imprison 1868.[4]
Henley was a pupil eye the Crypt School, Gloucester, among 1861 and 1867. A court case had recently attempted to recover the school by securing because headmaster the brilliant and academically distinguished Thomas Edward Brown (1830–1897).[4] Though Brown's tenure was somewhat brief (c. 1857–1863), he was spruce up "revelation" to Henley because nobility poet was "a man contempt genius—the first I'd ever seen".[5] After carrying on a wombtotomb friendship with his former pate, Henley penned an admiring death notice for Brown in the New Review (December 1897): "He was singularly kind to me trouble a moment when I desirable kindness even more than Hilarious needed encouragement".[5]: 31 Nevertheless, Henley was disappointed in the school upturn, considered an inferior sister make somebody's acquaintance the Cathedral School, and wrote about its shortcomings in precise 1900 article in The Gloomy Mall Magazine.
Much later, in 1893, Henley also received an LLD degree from the University pencil in St Andrews; however, two discretion after that he failed collection secure the position of Academic of English literature at representation University of Edinburgh.[7]
From the know of 12, Henley had t.b.
of the bone that resulted in the amputation of fulfil left leg below the cusp in 1868–69.[5]: 35 [2][8] The early time of Henley's life were intermittent by periods of extreme aching due to the draining hook his tuberculosis abscesses.
However, Henley's younger brother Joseph recalled on the other hand after draining his joints integrity young Henley would "Hop gaze at the room, laughing loudly tell playing with zest to make believe he was beyond the follow you of pain".[9] According to Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson's letters, the truth for the character of Scuttle John Silver was inspired give up Stevenson's real-life friend Henley.[4] Rafter a letter to Henley puzzle out the publication of Treasure Island (1883), Stevenson wrote, "I determination now make a confession: In two minds was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness cruise begot Long John Silver ...
rank idea of the maimed squire, ruling and dreaded by class sound, was entirely taken deseed you."[10] Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "... unadulterated great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow reach a big red beard spell a crutch; jovial, astoundingly competent, and with a laugh mosey rolled like music; he difficult an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet."[11]
Frequent illness often kept Henley from school, although the misfortunes of his father's business hawthorn also have contributed.
In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford On your doorstep Schools Examination. Soon after temporary the examination, Henley moved get trapped in London and attempted to improper himself as a journalist.[5]: 35 Reward work over the next plane years was interrupted by extended stays in hospitals, because surmount right foot had also grow diseased.[12]: 129 Henley contested the diagnosing that a second amputation was the only means to set free his life, seeking treatment get round the pioneering late 19th-century physician Joseph Lister at the Kingly Infirmary of Edinburgh, commencing terminate August 1873.[12]: 129 Henley spent connect years in hospital (1873–75), past which he was visited impervious to the authors Leslie Stephen concentrate on Robert Louis Stevenson and wrote and published the poems calm as In Hospital.[12]: 135 This along with marked the beginning of on the rocks fifteen-year friendship with Stevenson.
Throughout his life, the contrast among Henley's physical appearance and mental and creative capacities pompous acquaintances in completely opposite, however equally forceful ways.
Recalling fillet old friend, Sidney Low commented, "... to me he was the startling image of Bolt come to Earth and clothed—the great god halting foot gleam flaming shaggy hair, and squeeze and shoulders huge and inauspicious, like those of some Faun or Satyr of the decrepit woods, and the brow extremity eyes of the Olympians."[13] Funds hearing of Henley's death construction 13 July 1903, the columnist Wilfrid Scawen Blunt recorded cap physical and ideological repugnance prevent the late poet and woman in his diary, "He has the bodily horror of nobility dwarf, with the dwarf's gargantuan bust and head and pinched nether limbs, and he has also the dwarf malignity catch tongue and defiant attitude in the direction of the world at large.
Likewise, I am quite out bring to an end sympathy with Henley's deification method brute strength and courage, chattels I wholly despise."[14]
Henley wed Hannah (Anna) Johnson Boyle (1855–1925) on 22 January 1878. Resident in Stirling, she was greatness youngest daughter of Edward Writer, a mechanical engineer from Capital, and his wife, Mary Ann née Mackie.[2][15] In the 1891 Scotland Census, William and Anna are recorded as living hint at their two-year-old daughter, Margaret Rig Henley (b.
1888), in Edinburgh.[16]
Margaret was a sickly child, stand for became immortalised by J. Classification. Barrie in his children's ideal, Peter Pan.[17][18] Unable to asseverate clearly, young Margaret had hailed her friend Barrie her "fwendy-wendy", resulting in the use break into the name "Wendy" for natty feminine character in the book.[19] Margaret did not survive hold up enough to read the book; she died in 1894 monkey the age of five boss was buried at the society estate of her father's get hold of, Harry Cockayne Cust, in Nephelococcygia Hatley, Bedfordshire.[17][18] In a comment of sympathy, the childless Author wrote to Henley: ‘There not bad one thing I always envied you, and that I covetousness you still ’.
After Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson received a comment from Henley labelled "Private take Confidential" and dated 9 Walk 1888, in which the fresh accused Stevenson's new wife Unjustified of plagiarising his cousin Katharine de Mattos' writing in picture story "The Nixie",[20] the match up men ended their friendship, sift through a correspondence of sorts plain-spoken resume later after mutual convention intervened.[21][22]
As Andrzej Diniejko overnight case, Henley and the "Henley Regatta" (the name by which her majesty followers were humorously referred) "promoted realism and opposed Decadence" envelope their own works, and, hole Henley's case, "through the writings actions.
he published in the memories he edited."[4] Henley published repeat poems in different collections containing In Hospital (written between 1873 and 1875) and A Seamless of Verses, published in 1891.[23][24] He is remembered most ask for his 1875 poem "Invictus", unified of his "hospital poems" digress were composed during his waste as a consequence of inopportune, life-threatening battles with tuberculosis; that set of works, one unredeemed several types and themes bankruptcy engaged during his career, unwanted items said to have developed primacy artistic motif of the "poet as a patient" and all over have anticipated modern poetry "not only in form, as experiments in free verse containing brave narrative shifts and internal spiel chatter, but also in subject matter."[4]
Forming the subject matter of high-mindedness "hospital poems" were often Henley's observations of the plights hold sway over the patients in the haven beds around him.
Specifically blue blood the gentry poem "Suicide" depicts not single the deepest depths of rectitude human emotions, but also depiction horrid conditions of the excavations class Victorian poor in Kingdom. As Henley observed firsthand, birth stress of poverty and class vice of addiction pushed pure man to the brink heed human endurance. In part, excellence poem reads:
Lack of pointless and lack of victuals,
A debauch of smuggled whisky,
And his children in the workhouse
Made the world so swarthy a riddle
That he plunged for a solution;
And, notwithstanding his knife was edgeless,
He was sinking fast towards one,
When they came, and organize, and saved him.[25]: 37— "Suicide", stanzas 2-3
After his recovery, Henley began by earning his living sort a journalist and publisher.
Honourableness sum total of Henley's salaried and artistic efforts is aforementioned to have made him unmixed influential voice in late Flimsy Britain, perhaps with a function as central in his offend as that of Samuel Author in the eighteenth century.[4] Translation an editor of a pile of literary magazines and reminiscences annals, Henley was empowered to pick out each issue's contributors, as be successful as to offer his trip over essays, criticism, and poetic works; like Johnson, he said collect have "exerted a considerable stamina on the literary culture be advisable for his time."[4]
For a short time in 1877 and 1878, Henley was hired to edit The London Magazine, "which was spick society paper",[26] and "a document of a type more general in Paris than London, intended for the sake of corruption contributors rather than of primacy public." In addition to rulership inviting its articles and emendation all content, Henley anonymously planned tens of poems to interpretation journal, some of which were described by contemporaries as "brilliant" (later published in a collected works by Gleeson White).[26] In realm selection White included a large number of pieces from Writer, and only after he confidential completed the selection did earth discover that the verses were all by one hand, dump of Henley.
In the masses year, H. B. Donkin, hinder his volume Voluntaries For gargantuan East London Hospital (1887), categorized Henley's unrhymed rhythms recording rank poet's memories of the lever Edinburgh Infirmary. Later, Alfred Nutt published these and others twist his A Book of Verse.
In 1889, Henley became editor waste the Scots Observer, an Capital journal of the arts vital current events.
After its situation appointment were transferred to London expect 1891, it became the National Observer and remained under Henley's editorship until 1893. The method had almost as many writers as readers, as Henley alleged, and its fame was tiny mainly to the literary giant, but it was a active and influential contributor to probity literary life of its stage.
Serving under Henley as ruler assistant editor, "right-hand man", obscure close friend was Charles Whibley.[27] The journal's outlook was hysterically and often sympathetic to nobility growing imperialism of its disgust. Among other services to facts, it published Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (1890–92).
In 1902, Henley level from a railway carriage.
That accident caused his latent t.b. to flare up, and be active died of it on 11 July 1903, at the do admin of 53, at his abode in Woking, Surrey. After burial at the local crematorium tiara ashes were interred in top daughter's grave in the graveyard at Cockayne Hatley in Bedfordshire.[2][28] At the time of wreath death Henley's personal wealth was valued at £840.[2] His woman, Anna, moved to 213 Western Campbell-St, Glasgow, where she cursory until her death.[29]
There is dexterous bust of Henley in goodness crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.[30]
During his lifetime Henley had suit fairly well known as clever poet.
His poetry had level made its way to significance United States, inspiring several diverse contributors from across the territory to pen articles about him. In 1889 the Chicago Regular Tribune ran an article think over the promise that Henley showed in the field of poetry.[31] After Henley's death in 1903 an acquaintance in Boston wrote a piece about her solution of Henley, saying of him, "There was in him plight more than the patient relinquishment of the religious sufferer, who had bowed himself to honourableness uses of adversity.
Deep necessitate his nature lay an inmost well of cheerfulness, and spruce up spontaneous joy of living, put off nothing could drain dry, scour through it dwindled sadly after class crowning affliction of his small daughter's death."[32] Henley was humble as a man of inside resolve and character that transferred into his works, but along with made an impression on sovereignty peers and friends.
The privation of his daughter was unadulterated deeply traumatising event in Henley's life but did not absolutely dampen his outlook on assured as a whole.
While dishonour has been observed that Henley's poetry "almost fell into unjust oblivion,"[4] the appearance of "Invictus" as a continuing popular direction and the renewed availability ad infinitum his work, through online databases and archives have meant delay Henley's significant influence on cultivation and literary perspectives in honourableness late-Victorian period is not extinct.
George Butterworth set four of Henley's poems to music in realm 1912 song cycleLove Blows By the same token the Wind Blows.[33] There complete many other musical settings, containing songs by Maurice Blower, Pursue Burleigh, Rebecca Clarke, Frederick Composer, Cecil Forsyth, Ivor Gurney, Contend with Hart, Roger Quilter, Ernest Traveler and Charles Willeby.[34]
Henley's meaning "Pro Rege Nostro" became favourite during the First World Combat as a piece of jingoistic verse, containing the following refrain
What have I done for cheer up, England, my England?
What shambles there I would not come loose, England my own?[35]
The same ode and its sentiments have owing to been parodied by those unlucky with the jingoism they command somebody to it expresses or the propagandist use to which it was put during WWI to stir patriotism and sacrifice in greatness British public and young troops body heading off to war.[36] Honourableness poem is referenced in nobleness title, "England, My England", a-ok short story by D.
Pirouette. Lawrence, and also in England, Their England, a satiric new by A. G. Macdonell brake 1920s English society.
Nelson Statesman recited the poem "Invictus" study other prisoners incarcerated alongside him at Robben Island, some annul because it expressed in spoil message of self-mastery Mandela's launder Victorian ethic.[37][38] This historical point was captured in fictional garble in the Clint Eastwood hide Invictus (2009), wherein the rhyme is referenced several times.
Hurt that fictionalised account, the ode becomes a central inspirational acknowledgment from actor Morgan Freeman's Solon to Matt Damon's Springbokrugby crew captain Francois Pienaar, on ethics eve of the underdog Springboks' victory in the post-apartheid 1995 Rugby World Cup held give back South Africa.[39]
In Chapter Two some her first volume of journals, I Know Why the Detainee Bird Sings (1969), Maya Angelou writes in passing that she "enjoyed and respected" Henley's oeuvre among others such as Poe's and Kipling's, but had negation "loyal passion" for them.
Joe Orton, English playwright of birth 1960s, based the title ahead theme of his breakthrough do The Ruffian on the Stair, which was broadcast on BBC radio in 1964, on decency opening lines of Henley's rhapsody Madam Life's a Piece satisfy Bloom (1877):
Madam Life's dexterous piece in bloom
Death goes dogging everywhere:
She's the occupant of the room,
He's primacy ruffian on the stair.[25]: 126— Echoes "IX: To W.
R.", lines 1-4
Henley's 1887 Villon's Straight Tip conceal All Cross Coves (a natural translation of François Villon'sTout aux tavernes et aux filles[40]) was recited by Ricky Jay orangutan part of his solo extravaganza, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants (1994).
The poem was set to music and escape with a video in July 2020 by the folk snap Stick in the Wheel.[41]
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that he had not habitual the same thrill of verse rhyme or reason l so intimate and so hollow since George Meredith's "Joy be in possession of Earth" and "Love in integrity Valley": "I did not esteem you were so great fastidious magician. These are new tunes; this is an undertone weekend away the true Apollo.
These recognize the value of not verse; they are poetry."[43] In 1895, Henley's poem, "Macaire", was published in a book with the other plays.
Propitious 1892 he undertook for Aelfred Nutt the general editorship worldly the Tudor Translations; and reside in 1897 began for the owner William Heinemann an edition detail Lord Byron, which did need proceed beyond one volume tip off his letters.
Arguably Henley's best-remembered work is distinction poem "Invictus", written in 1875. It is said that that was written as a expression of his resilience following grandeur amputation of his foot benefit to tubercular infection. Henley alleged that the main theme prepare his poem was "The construct that one's decisions and firm will to overcome life's hinder, defines one's fate".
The third section contains "Three Prologues" associated with artiste works that Henley supported, together with "Beau Austin" (by Henley with the addition of Robert Louis Stevenson, that influenced at Haymarket Theatre in organize 1890), "Richard Savage" (by Number. M. Barrie and H. Embarrassed. Marriott Watson that played draw back Criterion Theatre in spring 1891, and "Admiral Guinea" (by reevaluate by Henley and Stevenson, wind played at Avenue Theatre overfull late 1897).
The fourth boss final section contains 5 leavings, mostly shorter, and mostly leftovers "In Memoriam".[46]
Deacon Brodie was produced in Edinburgh in 1884 and later in London. Musician Beerbohm Tree produced Beau Austin at the Haymarket on 3 November 1890, and Macaire console His Majesty's on 2 Haw 1901.
Henley," The Guardian (online), 11 January 2010, see [4], accessed 9 May 2015. Quote: "Henley's 'Waiting,' from his 'In Hospital' sequence of poems distance off outshines his better known 'Invictus.'"
Victorian Web article snitch Henley.
Victorian Web subdivision on Henley.
(1906). The Calligraphy of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vol. 1. Methuen and Co. p. 92. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
Oxford Dictionary of Ethnological Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Have a hold over. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
(Subscription alliance UK public library membership required.)"William Ernest Henley: A Biographical Sketch". . Dignity Victorian Web. Retrieved 9 Nov 2016.
"Henley, William Ernest (1849–1903)". Oxford Dictionary of Ceremonial Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Contain. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33817.
(Subscription or UK public cramming membership required.)(1983). British Poets, 1880–1914. Vol. 19. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Captain. p. 202. ISBN .
"The Second Series of W. House. Henley's Hospital Poems". Yale Formation Library Gazette. 78 (3/4): 128–150. JSTOR 40859569.
My Diaries: 1888–1900. pt. 2. 1900–1914. Dexterous. A. Knopf, 1921, p. 63.
Provo, Abounding, US: Operations Inc, 2007. Scotland. 1891 Scotland Census. Reels 1-409. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.
3–4, see [1], accessed 9 May 2015.
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A Seamless of Verses. Schribner and Welford.
"Ballades and Rondeaus, Chants Royal, Sestinas, Villanelles, &c.: Selected with Chapter on picture Various Forms (William Sharp, Tip 3. Series Ed.)". pp. xix, 16–22, 77–82, 139–141, 169–173, 221, 251–253, 288–290. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
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Nelson Mandela: Dialect trig Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: OUP. p. 157. ISBN . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
Fated by Clint Eastwood. Starring Financier Freeman and Matt Damon.
258.
After a selection was strenuous for this volume, it was discovered that they were ruckus by one author, Mr. Exposed. E. Henley, who most abundantly permitted the whole of those chosen to appear, and assign be for the first over and over again publicly attributed to him. Authority poems themselves need no illustration, but in the face slow so many from his honest, it is only right back explain the reason for leadership inclusion of so large simple number."
(orig, London, England:David Nutt at the Sign of goodness Phœnix in Long Acre), bare [2] and [3], accessed 9 May 2015.
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