Literary Devices in Invictus

This metaphor compares Henley’s relationship to his soul to that of a captain to his own ship. This metaphor can be read beyond the final words of the poem, suggesting that though Henley cannot control the waters in which the ship travels—much like how we cannot control many of the events that happen to us in life—he can still steer his soul in the direction he wants to go.

In both this phrase and “fell clutch of circumstance” above, Henley applies personification to the concepts of circumstance and chance. That is, he attributes human-like behaviors to these concepts, as if they were capable of clutching or bludgeoning someone. Personification like this is often used to imbue verse with rich imagery.

Henley uses a metaphor to compare his struggles to the darkness of the night. In this case, the metaphorical darkness that surrounds him is physical pain and the threat of death. Henley wrote this poem while in the hospital recovering from surgery that saved his right leg from the debilitating effects of tuberculosis of the bone. Henley’s left leg had been lost to the disease years prior.