nature briefly evoked at the poems beginning: “Demain quand le soleil reluira sur nos plaines
....” The renewal of the land, the possession of nature, and the general hope for future purity and
harmony all come into play in the poem after recounting the expulsion of the foreign enemy and
the victory of the people in verse 38. The celebration then centers on the promises of this new
era:
--Oh demain le soleil se lèvera plus pur
Et plus majestueux dans sa courbe d’azur
L’oiseau nous chantera des chants d’amour encore,
La voix de nos forets redeviendra sonore,
Et nos fleuves taris jailliront en torrents,
Et nos lacs rouleront des flots plus transparents
Et toi, peuple héroïque, et toi, mon beau génie,
Demain vous saluerez une ère d’harmonie! (32-39)Much has been made about Nau’s use of nature in his poems, integral to his identity as an“indigéniste” poet. In this poem, however, the vitality of the landscape is tied to history and
community. For both blacks and mulattos, territorial possession is central to sovereignty, much
more so than freedom, not only at the time of Revolution but again in the 1830s; the news of
recognition ideally meant that Haiti’s land, agricultural and commercial, would not pass again
into foreign hands. In a land of competing political ideologies, linguistic divisions, and
black/mulatto strife, a shared landscape as much as a shared history could represent national
unity. Moreover, in the last few verses, it is Haiti’s natural beauty along with a heroic people
and poetic genius which ushers in new promises for a new era. Haiti as the site of revolution
and a freed land is also the site of a renewed poetic confidence, of sound, song, voice, and
harmony.
The last poem to be treated in this section on revolutionary poems is, among other things,about the national role of poetry itself. In “Au génie de la patrie,” also by Ignace Nau, the
subject declares his deliberate intention to now turn his focus toward the nation: “C’est à toi