# CLXVII explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A brief aphoristic chapter contrasting the forward-looking perspective of youth with the backward-looking perspective of age.

## Themes in this chapter

### Mortality and Regret

The chapter contrasts youth's forward gaze with age's backward gaze, highlighting the inevitability of regret and the passage of time.

## Key lines

> Youth looks forward, for nothing is behind; Age backward, for nothing is before.

Young people focus on the future because they have no past to look back on; old people focus on the past because they have no future ahead.

_A concise philosophical observation on the different temporal orientations of youth and age._

## Links

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