3.0 HAITI’S NATIONAL BARD WRITERS NATURE, LOVE, AND NATION: THE
RIRES ET PLEURS OF OSWALD DURAND
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Haitian Romanticism during the 1830s referred to the collective efforts of several writers,and of Coriolan Ardouin and Ignace Nau in particular, to inaugurate a national literature at a
pivotal time in domestic and international politics. Their poetry coincided with the various
theories on nationalism and reflections on aesthetics expressed in the journal L’Union, censored
by President Boyer in the later months of 1839. Poetic production declined during the political
turbulence of the 1840s and 1850s following the fall of this regime, but the Romanticism which
resurfaced in the 1860s continued to characterize the general style and sensibility of poets
writing between L’Union and the end of the nineteenth century. These Haitian writers, still
embracing the role of the poet as divine emissary and national spokesperson, expand the personal
lyricism and national commitment first explored in the 1830s. Haitian anthologies and other
texts providing an introduction to Haitian literature tend to classify these independent poets,
some of whom devoted their poetry to patriotic themes, under labels such as “romantisme et