# Porter Ashe — Poetry character guide

> Porter Ashe in Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Great Porter Ashe, Porter

**First appearance:** 0000-poetry

## Snapshot

A larger-than-life figure whose roaring fortunes shake Nevada, hell, and heaven alike, embodying the grotesque spectacle of Gilded Age wealth.

## Who they are

Porter Ashe, the Silver King, is less a man than a geological event: his bellowings ring across continents, startle the damned, and rattle the throne of God. Bierce uses him to skewer the era's worship of money and the moral vacancy that accompanies sudden fortune. His grief-stricken state and the weeping of Nevada make him a tragicomic monument to greed's collateral damage.

## In the story

### [The Van Nessiad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/the-van-nessiad)

Great Porter Ashe, the protagonist of the dispute, determined to build a stable on his lot despite fierce opposition.

### [On Stone: Some Ante-Mortem Epitaphs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/on-stone-some-ante-mortem-epitaphs)

Epitaph XL states Porter Ashe is in the ground, a patron of the turf who never served it half so well as now.

### [XL](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_se/chapters/xl)

Deceased and buried; his mound is covered with green grass.

## Links

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