# CXI explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A brief observation on women's relationship to general truths, noting that women find general truths valueless unless they can apply them to specific situations, and ironically remarking on the common claim that women are not practical.

## Key lines

> To woman a general truth has neither value nor interest unless she can make a particular application of it. And we say that women are not practical!

Women only care about general truths if they can apply them to their own lives, yet society claims women aren't practical.

_The narrator ironically highlights the practicality of women in seeking specific applications of abstract ideas._

## Links

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