aimé.”^194 Similarly, the tone and purpose of Durand’s “Dédicace” are reminiscent of Victor
Hugo’s preface to Les Contemplations of 1856, in that both poetic voices speak for a larger
entity. In Rires et Pleurs this collective is all of Delorme’s students and finally other
countrymen, and in Les Contemplations, it is humanity at large: “Est-ce donc la vie d’un
homme? Oui, et la vie des autres hommes aussi [...] Ma vie est la vôtre, votre vie la
mienne....”^195 Knowing the prejudicial climate of the time and understanding the obstacles
Haitian writers faced, it is also important to ask if the assumed modesty and perception of futility
were also somehow related to racial and national identity. This brings us back once again to
what makes Durand’s project distinctive and to how such distinctions hindered poetic reception
or inspired Durand’s ambitions. How does Durand’s poetry negotiate potential reservations
having to reflect cultural realities with the simultaneous desire to culminate the prescriptions of
L’Union whereby poetry expresses a national ethos? How does being a Romantic poet and a
Haitian poet enrich or complicate Durand’s poetic project? Is Durand to be considered first and
foremost as a Haitian poet, a Romantic poet, or as a writer outside these paradigms? These are
just some of the questions which will resurface upon closer examination of select poems in Rires
et Pleurs.
(^194) José-Maria Heredia, Les Trophées (1931; New York: AMS Press, 1979) III.
(^195) Victor Hugo, Œuvres Poétiques, vol. 2 (Tours: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1967) 481.