# Two Rogues explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A sentry at his post encounters Death itself, but refuses to let it pass, condemning its methods as vulgar and dishonorable, and vowing to abandon his own violent trade rather than associate with such low tactics.

## Themes in this chapter

### Mortality and Regret

Death is personified and confronted, but the sentry rejects its methods, highlighting a tension between honorable death and ignoble dying.

### Deception and Self-Deception

Death attempts to deceive the sentry by invoking past camaraderie, but the sentry sees through the ruse and refuses to be complicit.

## Character check-ins

### Death

Approaches the sentry but is denied passage and rebuked for using low and abhorrent methods of killing.

### Unknown

The sentry who stands guard and challenges Death, refusing to let it cross the line.

## Key lines

> The soldier cried: “Halt! Who goes there?” The answer came: “Death⁠—in the air.”

The sentry challenges an unknown presence, which identifies itself as Death.

_Establishes the central confrontation between the sentry and Death._

> “Go back,” he growled, “you tiresome ass⁠— Go back and rest till the next war, Nor kill by methods all abhor: Miasma, famine, filth and vice, With plagues of locusts, plagues of lice, Foul food, foul water, and foul gases, Rank exhalations from morasses.”

The sentry angrily orders Death away, condemning its use of disease, starvation, and filth as cowardly and dishonorable.

_Highlights the sentry's disdain for Death's low and vulgar methods of killing._

## Links

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