# Pat Satan — Poetry character guide

> Pat Satan in Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Satan

**First appearance:** 0000-poetry

## Snapshot

The recording angel's nightmare and Nevada's loudest mourner, roaring through hell and heaven alike while the Silver King's torments shake the great white throne.

## Who they are

Pat Satan presides over an infernal din that mingles inextinguishable mirth with the weeping of Virginia City, his bellowings rattling the Sharons and startling the recording angel from sleep. He is less a tempter than a cosmic noise, a force whose blended thunders peal across continents and oceans until they break against the cold confines of eternal space. His roaring sets the moral acoustics of Bierce's verse, where grief, greed, and unholy laughter are indistinguishable, and where even God's eyes dare not explore the shore where the sound dies.

## In the story

### [Disavowal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/disavowal)

Appears in the poem, comically crossing himself and disavowing the violent scene.

## Links

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