# Not Guilty explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A Grecian swain confronts a maid about seeing her in another's arms, but she defends herself by claiming the other was a god, implying divine compulsion or a mythological excuse.

## Themes in this chapter

### Deception and Self-Deception

The maid's excuse that her lover was a god suggests self-deception or a convenient narrative to avoid guilt.

## Key lines

> I saw your charms in another's arms... And he kissed you fair as he held you there, A willing bird in a serpent's coil!

The swain accuses the maid of willingly being embraced by another man.

_The swain's accusation uses the metaphor of a bird in a serpent's coil to imply entrapment or willing submission._

> It was only one o' those gods, she said.

The maid claims the man was a god, absolving herself of responsibility.

_The maid's response invokes divine intervention as a justification, echoing mythological themes of gods seducing mortals._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters/not-guilty
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters