Introducing a fantastical original work from Louisiana writer and historian
Clark Taylor.

The backstory…

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 large 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 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 two 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 remain hidden.

The long poem, entitled The Legend of Ti Sainte: The Spirit of Mardi Gras, – running some hundreds of stanzas — employs eleven-line stanzas with an AA-BB-CC-DD-EEE rhyme scheme. The subsequent years of literary sleuthing have resulted in no evidence that the poem had either been published or the author recognized. 

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. The pages show that the author spared no part of the paper, cramming stanzas and corrections and notes onto each page. 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. Nonetheless, teasing apart the narrative has been difficult. 

The author’s name is “Rufus Pembroke” and he or she signed a letter included in the packet 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. This is a labor of love and appreciation for my hometown of New Orleans. 

While the work is often tedious and the results uncertain, I hope you will enjoy the poem and the story it tells. 

                   – Clark Taylor Nov. 2023