# XCI explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A brief reflection on the possibility of a prior world and the state of dying impenitent.

## Themes in this chapter

### Mortality and Regret

The chapter contemplates death and the notion of dying without repentance.

## Key lines

> If there was a world before this we must all have died impenitent.

If a previous world existed, then everyone must have died without repenting.

_The narrator speculates on a prior existence and the universal failure to repent._

## Links

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