The "Plagiarism" of Albert Pike

The "Plagiarism" of Albert PikeAuthor(s): Alexander E. JonesSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Autumn, 1954), pp. 270-277Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40037976 .

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THE "PLAGIARISM" OF ALBERT PIKE

By Alexander E. Jones*

In his biography of Albert Pike, Fred W. Allsopp has referred rather mysteriously to a "New York literary man [who] once made the assertion that Pike was not an original thinker and suggested that he was a great plagiarist."1 More recently, Professor Eugene Nolte, although again raising the question of "literary larceny/7 has decided that "Whether or not Pike was guilty of plagiarism ... it is not my purpose ... to determine."2

Up to the present time, therefore, Pike seems at best to have won only the verdict of "not proven," especially since his own testimony on the subject is somewhat vague:

It is not my intention to bespeak for [my poems] . . . any degree of favor, but merely to mention in pass- ing, that if there be in them imitation of any writer, I trust that it extends only to style; and I know that I have not wilfully commited [sic] plagiarism. It is possible that the imitation may extend farther than I sup- pose. . . .3

While such uncertainty exists, it is impossible to determine accurately either Pike's literary ability or his personal in- tegrity. For this reason, the present study will first ex- amine those verses by Pike which seem imitative of the works of other poets. Then it will attempt to answer, with some degree of finality, the question of whether or not Pike was a plagiarist.

When judging Pike's verses, one must remember that they were, for the most part, (youthful productions - he had written half of all his poems by the time he was twenty- five, two-thirds by the time he was thirty-five.4 Further-

*The author is assistant professor of English at the University of Arkansas. ^Albert Pike: A Biography (Little Rock, Ark., 1928), p. 139- hereafter cited

Biography. J"JThe .Plagiarism of an Albert Pike Poem," Arkansas Historical Quarterly,

XII (spring, 1953), 1. 3 As quoted by Allsopp, Biography, p. 148. There is no definitive bibliography of Pike s poetry, although a partial listing

occurs in William L. Boyden's Bibliography of the Writings of Albert Pike (Washington, D. C, 1921). To arrive at the above figures, I have examined - in addition to Boyden's Bibliography - the following collections of Pike's verse: Nugae (privately printed, 1854); Hymns to the Cods, and Other Poems, Part I (privately



PLAGARISM OF ALBERT PIKE 271

more, his almost furious activity between 1828 and 1835 represented the attempt of a displaced young New Eng- lander to win a reputation for himself back in Boston, his "old Mother City."5 Indeed, while discussing his literary ambitions, Pike admitted.

Open my heart when death has stiffened it, And in its deepest core you'll find "Fame" writ!6

Like most novices, however, Pike had not yet developed a style of his own; and he began instinctively to imitate those poets whose works he had been studying, especially the members of the Romantic school - Burns, Scott, Wads- worth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, and Shelldy.7

Perhaps the most obvious, although not the most sig- nificant, imitation is of Robert Burns. Some of Pike's verses are in a synthetic Scots dialect :

I ken a charming little maid As sweet and winsome as a fairy;

I wadna ask wi' wealth to wed, If I could wed wi' thee, Mary!

I've wandered east, I've wandered west, As wanton as the winds that vary;

But ne'er was I sae truly blest, As when I met wi' thee, Mary!8

Moreover, he occasionally wrote poems based on individ- ual works by Burns - sometimes pastiches like "Auld Lang Syne" end sometimes parodies like "O Jamie Brewed a Bowl of Punch," which derives from Burns' "Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut."

His indebtedness to Scott is less striking, being limited for the most part to echoes of "Lochinvar." Scott's lines, "While her mother did fret, and her father did fume/ and the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume," are printed, 1873) and Part II (privately printed, 1882); Gen. Albert Pike's Poems (Little Rock, Ark., 1900); and "Poems by Albert Pike Not Found in His Collected Works: Compiled from Magazines, Newspapers, Manuscripts, and Miscellaneous Sources by Susan B. Riley: 1934" (unpublished Manuscript in the Library of the Supreme Council, 33 degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., Washington, D. C).

5See Biography, p. 149. As a young man, Pike also submitted essays in the style of Irving to Boston periodicals - for example, "Crayon Sketches and! Journey- ings" to the Boston Pearl in 1834 and 1835.

6' 'Fragments, ' Gen. Albert Pike s Poems, p. 479. 7The description of Pike as "the most classic of American poets," attributed by

Allsopp to Edgar Allan Poe (Biography, p. 141), is misleading, being based almost exclusively upon Pike's Hymns to the Gods. Pike was quite aware of his indebtedness to the Romantic poets. (See Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, pp. 444, 477)).

8From "To Mary, Gen. Albert Pike s Poems, p. 223.



2/2 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

paralleled by Pike's "So, father may grumble, and mother may cry,/ And sister may scold; - I know very well why"9 and his "And the priesthood shall curse, and the coward shall wail."10

As might be expected, Wordsworth's influence mani- fests itself chiefly in Pike's celebration of nature - especially in his conviction that "tree and leaf and bud and flower/ Speak with a language eloquent" to him who "therein for instruction look,/ With calm and philosophic eye."11 A Wordsworthian tone is particularly evident in "The First Day of Spring" :

It is a glorious morning! I have come In from the cheerful influence of the wind And from my quiet health-inspiring walk Over the dewy plain ... ... In truth I do sincerely trust That I have more religion in my heart, More of the pure and humble spirit feel In this wide theatre of God's own works - The out-spread plains, and cliffs that meet the heavens, Swept by the breeze from the wide ocean's breast, Than I could feel in "Temples made writh hands," Tho' holy ones were there to point my course. When I go out from my close prison-house, Where I have labored long and wearily, And raise the locks from my toil-heated brain And let the cool free breeze, and the mild sun Come o'er me, I marvel not that those Of proud Pera should bow before the sun In ardent worship. . . ,12

Wordsworth's influence is, however, limited to a relatively small number of poems. Pike's approach to the beauties of nature is not ordinarily as deistic as the passages cited above.

Pike himself has testified as to the importance of Coleridge's influence upon his own verses :

He was young, And had not known the bent of his own mind, Until the mighty spells of COLERIDGE woke Its faculties, as did the wondrous staff

eFrom "Fanny," Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 246. loFrom "Song of the Nabajo " Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, o. 529. "From "Reflections/' Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 249. ^"Foems by Albert Pike Not Found in His Collected Work . . .," p. 16.




Of God's own Prophet the sealed desert-rock.13 Several of Pike's poems dealing with liberty - "The Strug- gle for Freedom," "Ode," and "The Fall of Poland"- are not unlike Coleridge's "France : an Ode." His chief model, however, was "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," which he followed rather closely in portions of "The Dead Chase." Coleridge's image of the sun peering through the ribs of a spectre ship has an echo in Pike's image of the moon gleaming through the bones of a spectre; the Mariner's bloody sun that at noon was "No bigger than the moon" appears as the noon "sun's red eye" which "Shines, shadowy, like the moon" ;14 and Coleridge's sails, which in the wind "did sigh like sedge," are paralleled by Pike's "The wind above it sighs alway;/ Like the sighing of thin sedge."15 Furthermore, the similarity between the two poems is not confined to mere descriptive details. Like the Ancient Mari- ner, Pike's Hermit has committed a crime and been punished by supernatural forces; and, like the Mariner, he has "a tale to tell :/ It will profit thee to hear. . . ."16 He has known the reproachful stare of a dead man's eyes; he has seen spirits that "circle round and round the dead,/ And wailed and murmured there . . ." ;17 and, finally, he has achieved salvation through penance. "The Dead Chase," moreover, is written in a stanzas quite similar to those employed by Coleridge.

Keats seems to have had less influence upon Pike than did the other Romantic poets. "Endymion" may have been his model when writing Hymns to the Gods; it is perhaps possible to detect echoes of "Ode to a Nightingale" in Pike's "Ode to the Mocking-Bird" ; and there are cer- tain portions of "Latona" which suggest Keats' "Lamia." In addition, passages of "Ariel* are reminiscent of Keats' interest in Spenser. On the whole, however, comparatively little of Pike's poetry has a flavor unmistakably Keatsian.

Pike's indebtedness to Byron is more clear. He is obviously thinking of himself as a sort of Byronic hero in "Lines" :

18From "Fantasma," Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 444. **Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 157. *BGen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 158. 16G<?w. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 159. ™Gen. Albert Pikes Poems, p. 162.



274 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Farewell, my land! Farewell, my pen! Farewell, hard world - thy harder life!

Now to the desert once again! The gun and knife!18

His "Fragments:- From The Brigand/ a Poem" sounds like something by Byron, or possibly Southey. In "Los

Tiempos," however, his model is unquestionable. In this

long, although uncompleted, poem Pike has employed all the

stylistic tricks of Byron's Don Juan - the stanza form, the division into cantos, the apostrophes, the "learned" quota- tions, the forced rhymes, and the flippant, devil-may-care wit :

But reader, mark ye! - I disclaim intention Of making a Don Juan sort of hero - That is - at present - and this much I mention, To turn the wrath of any pious Nero, Who might demolish me by reprehension - My motto shall be 'nihil ma jus vero' And 'render, unto Caesar, Caesar's due,' And if I fail, a failure's nothing new.19

Obviously, in spite of this protestation to the readers of the Arkansas Advocate, in which "Los Tiempos" appeared in 1833, Pike was indeed "making a Don Juan sort of hero."

Of all the English Romantic poets, Shelley apparently moved Pike most deeply. To him, Shelley's songs were "masses of rich, glowing words,/ Full of sweet feeling, and a singular power."20 Feeling, then, that Shelley was one of the supreme masters of lyric poetry, Pike imitated him extensively. In "Ode to the West Wind," Shelley cries, "I fall upon the thorns of life ! I bleed !" In Pike's "Musings" this becomes "Alas for my unsandalled feet! They bleed,/ Pierced by the thorns which strew the paths of life."21 In "The Cloud" Shelley describes the cloud at evening as rest- ing on its airy nest, "As still as a brooding dove" ; in "Love" Pike speaks of the sleeping woods, "Where night, like a dove, on the great trees broods."22 Likewise, Shelley's description (also in 'The Cloud") of the stars as a "swarm of golden bees," whirling around the moon, reappears with

18 Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 520. 19"Poems by Albert Pike Not Found in His Collected Works . . .," p. 101. 20From "Shelley," Gen, Albert Pike's Poems, p. 385. 21"Poems by Albert Pike Not Found in His Collected Works . . .," p. 191. 22" Poems by Albert Pike Not Found m His Collected Works . . ., p. 37.




only slight changes in Pike's "To the Planet Jupiter" : Who bade men say that thou, oh silver Peer! Wast to the moon a servitor, anear To sit, and watch her eye for messages Like to the other silver-winged bees, That swarm around her, when she sits her throne?23

In this passage the imagery is confused, for bees do not ordinarily act as "servitors/' receiving ocular commands from a princess on a throne. The lines, therefore, have little value and can be understood only as a clumsy adaptation of Shelley.

Pike's "Lightning"24 is also based upon "The Cloud" - this time imitating it at considerable length. Shelley makes the lightning the "pilot" of the Cloud; so does Pike: "And when it has reached the upper air,/ I hold its helm while it wanders there." The "meteor eyes" of Shelley's Sunrise are suggested by "And while my eye and shape are un- seen,/ The meteors down to my palace lean." Shelley's thunder is fettered in a "cavern," Pike's in "porphory caves." Shelley's description of the stars as golden bees that "whirl and flee" is altered to "winged stars" that "whirl . . . and hide." Similarly, Shelley's "burning plumes" of Sunrise inspires Pike's "black plumes of my servant Thunder"; his "lashing hail" becomes Pike's "heavy hail"; and his description of the moonlit sky as a "fleece-like floor" over which the moon can glide is transformed to a "cloudless floor" over which the lightning glides.

Near the end of "Lightning," Pike has paralleled "The Cloud" even more closely - to the detriment of his own verses, which become little more than nonsense. It is, perhaps, within the bounds of poetic license to describe the lightning as "the life of the flowers and buds .... [feeding] them with air and vapor-floods" ; still, the function is more appropriately bestowed by Shelley upon the cloud.

Furthermore, the reader is even less disposed to accept the following as an appropriate description of lightning:

I inspire the earth, the air, the water, I am parent of life and king of slaughter,

2aGen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 377. "To the Planet Jupiter" is, in part, also an imitation of "The Evening Wind" by William Cullen Bryant.

2*Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, pp. 452-455.



2j6 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

I green the earth, I open the flowers, I paint them with blushes, and feed them with showers.

I am the hearts ethereal essence, All life existeth by my presence; I am the soul of the mighty earth, And give its myriad creatures birth .... I am eternal, yet change forever; I wander always, and dissipate never; Decay and waste no power possess Over me, the deathless and fatherless.

Unelemental, immaterial, Less gross than aught that is not ethereal ; And next to spirit in rank am I : While matter exists I can never die.

It seems safe to state that these lines do not represent a high level of poetic achievement - their imagery is trite; their meaning seems thoroughly confused by Pike's tend- ency to ascribe to the lightning all the attributes of deity; and even their meter, rhyme, and diction are stilted and faulty. The passage represents, of course, an adaptation of Shelley's lines :

I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky;

I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores, I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain when with never a stain

The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams

Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph

And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,

I arise and unbuild it again. One can only say that he has conspicuously failed to improve on the original.

Even though Pike's poetry contains much imitation of others, it can hardly be called plagiarism. Rather, one might more accurately call such passages exercises in metri- cal composition, undertaken by an apprentice writer. Pike's own literary instincts were not very reliable; when following his own devices, he was capable of creating such a




mixed figure as "The pale moon, like a lustrous eye,/ Smiles calmly on the brow of night."25 Therefore, despite Wil- liam L. Boyden's reference to Pike as the "Homer of America,"26 the simple fact is that he was not especially gifted as a poet. If at times he seems to be committing "literary larceny," in actuality he is merely trying out the style of some other poet in an attempt to discover one suitable to his own talents. Such borrowing almost universal among the productions of fledgling poets, does not make the bor- rower a thief; at the worst, if he does not progress beyond it, the habit turns him into a sort of literary chameleon. Pike soon realized that his genius lay elsewhere and ceased writing poetry, referring to his verses as "unconsidered trifles."27 As he said late in life, "I felt that I was a pretty good ^wyer, and could do some things pretty well with a pen, but I did not think I was a very great poet."28

25From "Lines to a Lady," Gen. Albert Pike's Poems, p. 197. ^Bibliography of the Writings of Albert Pike (p. iv). 27As quoted m Biography, p. 138. 28"Autobiography of General Albert Pike: from Stenographic Notes Furnished!

by Himself" (unpublished manuscript, Library of the Supreme Council, 33 degree) p. 70.



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