Poem Cited by McVeigh Prior to His Execution

June 11 -- Timothy McVeigh used Invictus by William Ernest Henley, apoem published in 1875, for his last words. Like earlier Henleyworks such as A Love by the Sea and A Thanksgiving, it's an odeto strength in the face of suffering.

Invictus

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.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

A Man of Strong Words

The inspiration for Long John Silver from Robert LouisStevenson's Treasure Island, Henley was a 19th-century Britisheditor and poet known for his red beard, unkempt hair and unkemptmanner.

"It has been said of him that his presence could be felt in aroom you entered blindfolded," Stevenson once commented.

Born in Gloucester, England, in 1849, Henley suffered physicallyfrom an early age. He was diagnosed with tubercular arthritis at 12and by age 16 his lower left leg had been amputated.

But Henley went on to write poetry and to edit a handful ofmagazines, befriending Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling among others.Henley also feuded with Oscar Wilde, whose sensual novel ThePicture of Dorian Gray he condemned as "false art and false tohuman nature.

"Mr. Wilde has brains, art, and style; but if he can write fornone but outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph boys, the soonerhe takes to tailoring (or some other decent trade) the better forhis own reputation and morals," Henley wrote.

A railway accident in 1902 led to a recurrence of tuberculosisand he died the following year.

Observed William Butler Yeats, whom Henley had published: "Idisagreed with him about almost everything, but I admired himbeyond words."