‘Invictus’: Were Canada’s COVID-19 leaders misquoting one of the most famous poems ever?

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What’s most curious about Dr. Theresa Tam’s poetic invocation is that she got it wrong

When Canada’s chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, addressed the nation Thursday morning about the state of COVID-19 and our future prospects, she invoked two of the most famous lines in the history of English poetry.

It’s an emboldening sentiment at a time of serious alarm. We need to impress the importance of collective action and civic responsibility, and to emphasize in public messaging the impact our individual choices over the coming weeks will have on the severity of the consequences over the coming months.

This seems a bizarre revision, not least because Henley’s “Invictus” is among the best-known and most frequently cited poems ever composed. That final couplet, in particular, has achieved such currency that it’s part of the popular vernacular, famously adduced by Churchill in the House of Commons during a speech for rhetorical effect and, even more legendarily, read aloud by Nelson Mandela while incarcerated.

 

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NP, are you still in business?

She's been getting it wrong since day 1

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