Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

accords to the Haitian countryside in both books of his collection. The impact of Herder’s

scholarship on Romantic notions of nationalism was explored in general terms when examining

Ardouin’s poem about the Taino Indians in the previous chapter. One of Herder’s additional

arguments is that the foundations of national culture rests with a people’s serenity and

satisfaction with its environment.^203 In Durand’s poems, especially in Book Two, customs,

beliefs, and stories indeed unfold in the context of love and nature unique to the Haitian rural

experience. Many poems which sketch these brief scenes include explanations, either in the text

or in footnotes, about the cultural significance of topics or items mentioned. “La branche

d’amitié,” for example, is the title of a poem which describes a rural custom. It is the name of a

flower in Haiti that when thrown into the woods and found again indicates reciprocal fidelity in a

couple’s relationship. Several poems of this sort begin with a variation of the phrase “Il est dans

notre contrée....”

In nineteenth-century Haiti, as seen in “La voix de la patrie,” nature is literally the terrain

on which to write national poetry. Nature not only represents an alternative to writing about a

nation otherwise characterized by civil instability and uncertainty about sovereignty, but this

claiming of land so integral to initial independence must also be reclaimed during this time. It is

during the period of Durand’s writing that nature embodies one of the last vestiges of any

national viability. Dash comments on the use and significance of nature in nineteenth-century

texts in the Caribbean:

Nature is used poetically because in it are perceived the harmonies [...] The

articulation of nature as the key to authenticity, self-possession, and mastery of

the national terrain is a significant feature of early nationalist thought in the

Caribbean.^204

(^203) Johann Gottfried von Herder, Reflections on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1968) 39.
(^204) Dash, The Other America 47.