Introducing a fantastical new project from Louisiana writer and historian Clark Taylor.

In the fall of 2009, I was doing research at the Amistad Research facility on the campus of Tulane University when I learned of the existence of a cache of pages from what looked to be a collection of poems. After some cursory reading, it became obvious that rather than a collection of individual poems, it was in fact a singular, long work of epic poetry.

A fellow researcher, who shall remain anonymous for a variety of reasons, explained that the pages had been discovered in the attic of a house then undergoing renovation after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The hundreds of pages were stuffed into a cracked leather pouch, which itself had suffered much over the nearly one hundred years, but the contents seemed to have weathered the years fairly well, kept as they were in a well-sealed cedar chest. I was able to acquire the papers. The manner by which this occurred shall also remain hidden.

The long poem, running some hundreds of stanzas, was written in a poetic style — eleven-line stanzas with an AA-BB-CC-DD-EEE rhyme scheme — previously unknown or unused by poets of the early 19th century, when the poem seems to have been composed. Given the value of writing paper of the day, the undertaking may have been the work of a man (or woman) of some means, though during the era there were many people employed as “scriveners,” engaged in the mindless, yet vital work of copying legal and business papers for attorneys, businessmen and the like. It is possible that the author was able to work on the poem while at work in that capacity, but I do not know. By this time, mass-produced rag paper had been well-developed and the early versions of metal nib pens had been introduced, so access to the numerous pages, ink and pen with which to pursue this was certainly available to even people of modest means.

The author’s name is Rufus Pembroke and he signs an opening letter describing his process as “Mardi Gras Day 1824,” though since I cannot locate any reference to Pembroke, nor any works that seem to resemble this work, I cannot be sure as to any provenance for the poem. If anyone is able to locate the author in any archives, I would very much like to find out more, but after nearly fifteen years, I have been unable to find even so much as a signature from a Rufus Pembroke of that time period. It is very possible that the author’s name is a nom de plume.

Once in possession of the pages, I set to work trying to recreate the poem. The greatest trouble — besides ensuring a faithful rendering of the handwriting into type — was finding an order for the pages which had been put away in a higgledy-piggledy fashion. There was rhyme, but no reason.

This work continues, even to this moment. I will be putting up the poem on this site as I continue to sort and transcribe the work.