# Long Mary — Poetry character guide

> Long Mary in Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Long Moll

**First appearance:** 0000-poetry

## Snapshot

Known as Long Moll, she strides through Bierce's satiric stage as a queen of temperance and lemonade, her visage austere and her gait a high parade.

## Who they are

Long Mary, or Long Moll, appears as a tree-walking queen whose eyes are fixed on the ground and whose every step plashes lemonade, a figure of imperious reform in a world of rum-soaked politicians. She swaps souls with St. John to drive the Drink-Demon from the land, only to watch her borrowed spirit flee on a dead run, leaving her to follow nimbly on his track. Her austere visage and Methodist oath make her both a comic target and a genuine force, and her failed exchange of immortal parts exposes the vanity of prohibitionist zeal in a country that will not have it that way.

## In the story

### [Yorick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/yorick)

Recalled as taking a shine to the skull's owner and throwing over Jake the Kangaroo.

### [The Convicts’ Ball](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/the-convicts-ball)

Mentioned as 'Long Moll' who comments on the carefree atmosphere.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/characters/long_mary
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/characters