William Ernest Henley in Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire

The impressive grave of the poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) in the tiny Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire.

'WILLIAM

ERNEST

HENLEY'

'SO BE MY PASSING

MY TASK ACCOMPLISHED AND THE LONG DAY DONE

MY WAGES TAKEN AND IN MY HEART

SOME LATE LARK SINGING

LET ME BE GATHERED TO THE QUIET WEST

THE SUNDOWN SPLENDID AND SERENE

DEATH'

'MARGARET EMMA HENLEY

SEPT 4^th 1888 FEB 11^th 1894

ONLY CHILD OF WILLIAM ERNEST

AND ANNA HENLEY'

Margaret Henley, known to J. M. Barrie, is said to be the inspiration behind Barrie's Wendy of Peter Pan fame. Curiously, a village just a few miles from Cockayne Hatley is called Wendy.

Henley is most remembered for his poem 'Invictus' (1888):

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 bludgeoning 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'.