The Captain of Thy Soul
Words by William Ernest Henley, answered by Orson F. Whitney; music by Kevin Ball with Suno. Produced with Suno.
The story
This song brings together two of my favorite poems. William Ernest Henley wrote Invictus while facing serious illness, and it is defiant to the last line: I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
Decades later, Orson F. Whitney answered it with The Soul's Captain. His reply asks a gentle, piercing question: Thou, captain of thy soul...who gave that place to thee?
I love them both, and I wanted them side by side in a thoughtful folk setting, letting the first poem's courage turn, in a new key, toward the One to whom all souls belong.
The same two poems return, as a dramatic orchestral ballad, in the title track of Invictus.
Kevin
Lyrics
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.
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.
Art thou in truth? Then what of Him
Who bought thee with His blood?
Who plunged into devouring seas
And snatched thee from the flood,
Men are as bubbles on the wave,
As leaves upon the tree,
Thou, captain of thy soul! Forsooth,
Who gave that place to thee?
Free will is thine- free agency,
To wield for right or wrong;
But thou must answer unto Him
To whom all souls belong.
Bend to the dust that “head unbowed,”
Small part of life’s great whole,
And see in Him and Him alone,
The captain of thy soul.