# LIV explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A brief reflection on hope as an explorer of the future, contrasting knowledge of the hereafter with ignorance of the heretofore.

## Key lines

> Hope is an explorer who surveys the country ahead. That is why we know so much about the Hereafter and so little about the Heretofore.

Hope looks forward, so we understand the future better than the past.

_Metaphor for hope's forward-looking nature._

## Links

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