# Black Bart, Po8 explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

The narrator addresses a former criminal, Black Bart, who has served his term and found crime to be a fiction. The speaker ironically praises Bart's atonement, then reveals a twist: he thought Bart was convicted as a poet, not a stage robber. The narrator laments the proliferation of bad poets and wishes they too could be arrested, leaving Parnassus for himself.

## Themes in this chapter

### Deception and Self-Deception

The narrator mistakes Black Bart's crime for poetry, revealing a self-deceptive view of artistic merit and criminality.

### Art and Criticism

The poem satirizes bad poets and the desire to suppress them, while elevating the narrator's own poetic ambitions.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who addresses Black Bart and reflects on crime, poetry, and Parnassus.

### Pegasus

Mentioned as the mythical horse that carries the narrator up Parnassus, but is tempted to run into the sea.

## Key lines

> What’s that?⁠—you “ne’er again will rob a stage”? What! did you do so? Faith, I didn’t know it. Was that what threw poor Themis in a rage? I thought you were convicted as a poet!

The narrator feigns surprise that Black Bart robbed stages, having assumed he was punished for writing poetry.

_This twist reveals the narrator's preoccupation with poetic rivalry over actual crime._

> I thought that Welcker, Stuart, Brooks and all The ghastly crew who always are begriming With villain couplets every page and wall, Might be arrested and “run in” for rhyming.

The narrator wishes that bad poets could be arrested for their verses, just as criminals are.

_Expresses the narrator's disdain for other poets and desire for poetic monopoly._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters/black-bart-po8
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters