Invictus: Ballad Analysis

This is a copy of the poem, Invictus:

The rhyme of the poem “Invictus” focuses on the last word of each verse, where every other verse rhymes together with each other. And every even number of verses also rhyme with each other such as:

• •On stanza 1 in verses one & three when the last words of both verses are “me” & “be”. Which both sound alike and rhyme together, while verses two and four both rhyme together but not with verses one & three. With the process repeating in other stanzas.

While the rhythm of the poem is steady and consistent, with 8 syllables on each verse to keep a balanced beat.

Notes of Rhythm and Rhyme

In the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley there are many examples of language devices. Some of the example of the poem’s language devices are:

• •“Night that covers me”, is an example of personification. It is giving the night the characteristic of covering. The night is being personified as villain that is surrounding the person in an evil way.

• •“Black as the pit”, is an example of simile because it uses the words “as”. It is saying that the black “from pole to pole” is as dark as a deep, dark, pit/hole.

• •“Finds and shall find me unafraid” is an example of assonance as it uses the sound: “nd”. It helps the sentence keep a steady beat, to create and help the reader remember this specific part.\

• •“Beyond this place of wrath and tears” is an example of metaphor, as the words ‘wrath’ & tears’ are used to describe the word before, ‘place’. Which makes readers infer that the place the character was in, was sad and violent.

• •“I am the captain of my soul.” is an example of both a metaphor and personification, as the character has been said to be a ‘captain’, and the word ‘soul’ is being personified by the word ‘captain’ to be led by the character.

Examples of figurative language

The figurative language devices that were used in this poem impacted the way readers responded using similes & metaphors.

Such as the example on the 1st stanza, verse 1 & 2:

• “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole” This example of a simile helps the reader visualize and infer that the landscape was as dark as the pit. Contributing to creating the scene and setting of the poem.

• Another such example is on stanza 3 on the 1st verse: “Beyond this place of wrath and tears” This metaphor assists readers in the description of where the character in the poem is, which helps build up the plot and meaning behind the poem.

• “Night that covers me” on stanza 1 and 1st verse helps the reader to visualize and feel the fear of the night, which is mysterious and dangerous in this example of personification. This helps to give the character a problem to solve and work towards.

Effect of the figurative language

The figurative language devices that were used in this poem impacted the way readers responded using similes & metaphors.

• The phrase “Finds and shall find me unafraid” is the last line of the 3rd stanza is an example assonance. This quote helps the reader make a connection to it and make it memorable. As this quote repeats the sound “nd”, it makes it easy to catch the attention of the reader.

• “I am the captain of my soul” is an example of personification, as it describes the soul, as a non-human thing, being captained or leaded by the captain, who is the main character in the story. This is the last line the whole poem and it finished with a strong moral along with it’s accompaniment by the 2nd last line in the poem: “I am the master of my fate”. This is also an example of metaphor as it is directly being quoted as “I am…” as a captain.

Interpretation

Our interpretation of the poem shows that it focuses on courage, resilience and determination.

•The character in this poem reaches the lowest parts of life, but still has the motivation to keep going and persevere in life. The last two lines: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” this means that he decides what he does and chooses his paths in life.

We interpreted this in the style of a job application because everyone gets rejected more than once in life, as shown in the 2nd stanza. In the 3rd stanza it is describing the character’s resilience and how he/she came back from this unfortunate event.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the poem “Invictus” is a story that relates to the reader through temptation and determination. This is portrayed through figurative language, describing the story of one character’s life journey as being determined and courageous.

The character in the poem/story is very resilient and doesn’t stop because he has failed. The determination form this character is to be admired, readers feel inspired from the moral/message in this poem as it will help a lot in life.

Overall, the definition of the word ‘Invictus’ is unconquerable or undefeated which truly accompanies the character in the poem.

Credit to Jaydon Lee for combined work on this poem