# CCXLIV explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

The narrator reflects on the idea that while killing a woman who has wronged you is forbidden, one can take solace in the natural passage of time, which avenges you countless times each day as she grows older.

## Themes in this chapter

### Justice and Revenge

The chapter explores a form of passive revenge through the inevitable aging of a wrongdoer.

### Mortality and Regret

Aging is presented as a natural force that brings about a slow, daily vengeance.

## Key lines

> You are not permitted to kill a woman who has wronged you, but nothing forbids you to reflect that she is growing older every minute. You are avenged fourteen hundred and forty times a day.

Though you cannot legally kill a woman who has harmed you, you are free to think about how she ages each moment, and this thought provides revenge 1,440 times daily.

_The narrator suggests that time itself serves as a constant, natural form of retribution._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters/ccxliv
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters