In these rather trying times, I've taken to occasionally reading "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley for inspiration/hope.
The first stanza of the poem is below:
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.
My question relates to the third line, I thank whatever gods may be. The way I interpret this line, it sounds as though Henley is implying that there could be multiple gods, or one god, or none at all.
Was this a common belief in England at the time the poem was written in the 1870's? Or is the line simply a poet being creative with his word use?
I will leave the social and demographic aspect of the question at bay, though I should allude generally that this is the poet being a poet, and searching for these king of language-inherent metaphoricity, legions of classical allusions in English poetry across any period one wishes to discuss, extrapolating such implications would be injudicious. Though it is still a completely sensible thing to ask, independently, about religious demographic in late Victorian England.
So, about the poem, and I will be doing mostly a closer look to the opening quatrain.
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.
Leaving aside rhetorical figures and prosody, the opening line would be heavily biblically conditioned, and the psalm would be widely recognized ( it borrowed the title to Wilde´s masterpiece De profundis ):
1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
( KJV, Psalm 130 )
In opposition to this heavily alluded opening two stanzas with brimming Christian overtones, we get a bold reversal:
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
The move is not to subjugate, plead, cry or beseech, as the reader ( specially at the time ) would expect, but to thank and assert his own fortitude in light of adversity. God, or gods, are entirely conditional, as is the condition whom he thanks. Though the lack of specificity would be / is quite irrelevant to Christian, but is also substantial and in a reversible way uses this "lack of specificity" to downplay the Biblical opening to transition to the self, and in this it has double effect.
The interpretative varieties, and how radically one wishes to interpret it, are numerous. Again, if we push it to the end, and perhaps those knowledgeable of the KJV Bible (that would be the most popular at the day) would recognize the ending anaphora from famous palilogia:
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
To:
And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. ( Exodus 3:14 )
Only to reaffirm and cement the closing lines, insofar as he uses God´s words as himself.
I hope someone versed in Victorian England might put some more detailed demographics, but broadly speaking, it was not popular, insofar as majority were Christians, although by the end of nineteenth century we see a rise of various movements, like spiritualism and theosophy, and perhaps a a noticeable share of people who do not profess religious belief.
That being the case, the two would still be uncorrelated.