# The Piute explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A satirical and derogatory poem describing the Piute (Paiute) people as unsavory, destitute of soap, and engaged in crude survival practices such as hunting jackrabbits and eating grasshoppers, snails, and pine nuts. The narrator expresses a wish that the Piute would open a grin large enough to consume their Agent, reflecting a bitter critique of both the Indigenous people and the government agents assigned to them.

## Themes in this chapter

### Political Satire

The poem satirizes both the Piute people and the government's Indian Agent system, ending with a wish for the Agent to be consumed.

### Nature and Artifice

The poem depicts the Piute's interaction with nature—hunting, gathering, and consuming wildlife—in a grotesque and artificial poetic form.

## Key lines

> Unbeautiful is the Piute! Howe’er bedecked with bravery, His person is unsavory⁠— Of soap he’s destitute.

The Piute is ugly and dirty, no matter how he dresses, because he never uses soap.

_Opening lines establishing a racist caricature of the Piute as unclean._

> He multiplies upon the earth In spite of all admonishing; All censure his astonishing And versatile unworth.

Despite being told to stop, the Piute continues to reproduce, and everyone condemns his remarkable and varied worthlessness.

_Continues the dehumanizing portrayal, suggesting the Piute are a reproach to civilization._

> I wish he’d open up a grin Of adequate vivacity And carrying capacity To take his Agent in.

I wish the Piute would smile wide enough and with enough energy to swallow his government Agent whole.

_Final lines express a violent wish for the Piute to devour the Indian Agent, satirizing both._

## Links

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