other topic could better function to express national identity. Critics have highlighted how the
rural parts of Haiti house the customs and beliefs unique to Haitian culture and most sheltered
from outside influence. These rural areas provide Haiti with the concept of a hinterland and
reservoir of cultural resistance. Writers of Haitian indigénisme in the early twentieth century
view rural Haiti as a source of Haitian literary expression.
The theme of nature in Haitian locales leads to another important point about Parnassianpoetry. Although trends in Caribbean literature are often seen as derivative of their European
counterparts, the connection of several French Parnassian writers to tropical environments
demonstrates the reciprocal nature of such influences. Leconte de Lisle spent much of his youth
in La Réunion where he was born, José-Maria Heredia was originally from Cuba, and another
Parnassian poet, Léon Drieux was from La Réunion. Once in Europe, the nostalgia for the
island of their youth imprinted their poetic sensibility. It is interesting to note that Haitian critics
in the nineteenth century claimed José-Maria Heredia as a Caribbean poet:
José Maria de Heredia est né sous notre ciel brûlant, sous ce ciel où, comme il le
dit lui-même,
Les Antilles bleues
Se pâment sous l’ardeur de l’Astre occidental
C’est à Cuba, dans l’île sœur dont un accident géologique déjà lointain nous
sépara, qu’il vit le jour, et qu’il a passé ses premières années ...^209It could convincingly be argued that elements of French Parnassian poetry began inisland territories, even though few verses about tropical nature in Parnassian poetry actually
specify the locale. Nature is usually distant in time and space, part of some “là-bas,” or a “pays
lointain.” Durand’s depictions are much more specific. Since he distinguishes his project from
the exoticism of his European counterparts by rooting his descriptions of nature in the
(^209) Haïti littéraire et sociale le 20 novembre 1905: 711.