# Mahatma Holden — Poetry character guide

> Mahatma Holden in Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Holden

**First appearance:** 0000-poetry

## Snapshot

A roadside casualty of cannon-practice whose single eye and wandering mind turn military ambition into a grimly comic meditation on the weapons meant to kill.

## Who they are

He sits on a stone with one eye and a broken future, an ex-West Point cadet whose gun discharged both before and behind, leaving him unfit for the trade of war. His rambling complaint—wanting an international brawl but not a piece of the breech—captures Bierce's fatalistic wit about soldiers and the machinery that maims them. He matters as an early emblem of the collection's recurring theme: the absurd bargain between human intention and violent accident.

## In the story

### [At the Observatory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/at-the-observatory)

The Autocrat of Stars who discovers the Moon after years of patient observation.

### [Reciprocity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/reciprocity)

The astronomer who reverses the telescope so the planets can study him.

## Links

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