Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

country.^154 Dessalines’ murder, however, shows that beyond the military victory this unity was

never fully achieved. Black/mulatto divisions contributed to Dessalines’ demise and increased

after his death: As already mentioned, Haiti fragments into Pétion’s mulatto republic in the

south and Henri Christophe’s black kingdom in the north, a political and geographical separation

along black/mulatto lines which would last for twenty years. Dessalines remained symbolic of a

possible but unfulfilled national unity. In the 1830s, political reunification had been achieved

but black/mulatto relations under Boyer were growing increasingly tense; the dream of unity to

be recaptured in Dessalines’ memory represented a powerful hope in national viability.

Nau’s poem actually entitled “Dessalines” will serve to reinforce many of the ideas

already put forth in the preceding analysis. This poem appeared in the January 3 issue of

L’Union in 1839 and immediately follows both an article about the ratification of treaties

between Haiti and France in the previous year and an anonymous poem entitled “L’An 1838.”

On first page of this year’s edition, Nau’s poem opens by making a joint appeal to the reader and

to the poet to discover “ourselves” in the name of Dessalines. The poetic subject is very much

affected and responds by calling on this past leader to provide national awareness and artistic

inspiration:

Dessaline!... A ce nom, amis, découvrons-nous! [sic]

Je me sens le cœur battre à fléchir les genoux

Et jaillir à ce nom un sang chaud dans mes veines. (1-3)

This poem bears a composition date of December 31, 1838, and in anticipation of

independence day of January 1, it continues with a future projection of what will happen

‘tomorrow’:

Demain, quand le soleil reluira sur nos plaines,

Quand son disque demain ira de ses rayons

(^154) Nicholls 37-38.