# Technology explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

The narrator encounters a solemn old man who appears to be mourning a financial disaster, but it is revealed that he is an undertaker speaking in technical terms about the sinking of the steamship Hanner, which claimed 410 lives. The poem reflects on mortality and the unsettling intersection of professional jargon with human tragedy.

## Themes in this chapter

### Mortality and Regret

The poem centers on the sinking of a steamship and the undertaker's professional yet sorrowful recounting of the disaster, highlighting the inevitability of death.

### Deception and Self-Deception

The narrator initially misinterprets the undertaker's lament as a financial loss, revealing how jargon can obscure the true nature of tragedy.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The narrator observes and converses with the old undertaker, reflecting on the encounter.

## Key lines

> Four hundred and ten longs and shorts in all, Went down⁠—he paused and snuffled.

The undertaker refers to 410 bodies (longs and shorts) lost in the shipwreck, pausing to sniffle with emotion.

_The undertaker uses technical terms for corpses, blending professional detachment with genuine grief._

> I’m in the business myself, said he, And you’ve mistook my expression; For I uses the technical terms, you see, Employed in my perfession.

The old man clarifies that he is an undertaker and that his words were professional jargon, not financial terminology.

_This reveals the poem's central irony: the narrator's misunderstanding of the undertaker's trade._

## Links

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