Now that the unspeakable criminal McVeigh has made W.E. Henley's Invictus a household word by using it to thumb his nose for the last time at the American people, what do you all think of the poem and that [expletive deleted]'s use of it?

For my part, I have never been a big admirer of the poem. I think it's overdone, stylistically, and the philosophy is questionable, even if not as abandoned to nihilism and infidelity as religious conservatives say. But now that the media, in their relentless pursuit of background material to add to the McVeigh story, have dug up the info on Henley, is turns out that it was probably written after he had had his left leg amputated because of tuberculosis of the bone, this at age 16. That background adds some interest to the sentiments expressed. And that makes McVeigh's use of it all the more outrageous. What did he suffer? A convicted and unrepentant mass murderer and terrorist, he enjoyed passionate legal representation (at whose cost?, I would like to know), 3 squares a day, decent housing, access to visitors and the media, and at the end, a far easier death than most people have. And he expects to be viewed as a martyr. O tempora! O mores!.

Whoops, excuse me; got carried away off the real subject. Await your reactions.

For the benefit of anyone else who might have to look it up, as I did: http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/HenleyInvictus.htm

The poem is a bit bombastic, but expresses courage, which is certainly to be preferred to whining self-pity. In caring for patients with incurable illnesses, courage is of great value not only to the care givers, but an indispensible adjuvant to any treatment.

"I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

I thought this was Walt Whitman. Thanks for inadvertently setting me straight. Now which Whitman poem am I thinking of? Help!

oh captain! my captain!!

http://utcsl.phys.utk.edu/~forrest/poems/captain.html
(see also, Dead Poet's Society)

Didn't he make chocolates?

[in-a-really-weird-mood-e]

"Soldier" written by then Crown Prince Dipendra

Left bonds of affection, having duly understood
If needed in blood, be ready to fight I will
To flames reduce, will lightening halt
Spray with blood I will
On this uniform, the country's "Sindur"
Shake the earth I will.

From an article in the Indian Express:
Soldier happens to be just one of the several poems where Dipendra speaks passionately of the need to draw blood with uncanny consistency the thread runs across his other poems as well. From a poem titled "O Mother" he dutifully begins - "O, Mother Show us what to do and we'll fulfill.." but by the fifth stanza the martial streak emerges

In this chest a flame burns
Nepali Strength aglow
To build a nation will toil on
Till the blood does flow

tsuwm,

thanks for the clarification.

Avy,
the only thing those "poems" have going for them is the odd bit of anastrophe ... Were they written originally in English?

> Were they written originally in English?

I don't Anna, it did not say in the article.
But I think they are translated. They have that discordant ring to it - unless he wrote that badly in English.

Did anyone else notice that one of the tweedle-dee tweedle-dumber big TV-media three, in noting McVeigh's use of Invictus and showing part of the text on-screen, changed the spelling of "strait" to "straight?"

Insult to injury. Is there a lawyer in the house?