# XXII explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A brief, darkly humorous epitaph for John Irish, who went to San Jose to loaf and fish but was killed with an empty dish and laid to rest, with a mock-heroic call for crocodiles to weep.

## Themes in this chapter

### Mortality and Regret

The chapter presents a grim, ironic epitaph highlighting the absurdity and suddenness of death.

## Character check-ins

### John Irish

The subject of the epitaph; went to San Jose to loaf and fish but was killed with an empty dish.

## Key lines

> John Irish went, one luckless day, To loaf and fish at San Jose. He got no loaf, he got no fish: They brained him with an empty dish! They laid him in this place asleep⁠— O come, ye crocodiles, and weep.

On an unlucky day, John Irish went to San Jose to relax and fish, but instead of catching anything, he was struck dead with an empty dish and buried; the poem mockingly invites crocodiles to mourn.

_The epitaph uses dark humor and absurdity to comment on the futility of the outing and the randomness of death._

## Links

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