Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

(Sean Pound) #1

existed. Is the decision to be French or Haitian up to the writer? Is national belonging


determined by language, family history, or theme? Did Haitian intellectuals claim Dumas and


Durand because of race or because of literary success? At least for Durand, it seems that being a


Haitian poet implies that the notions and structure of poetry per se work in combination with


nature, social relationships, and history specific to the Haitian experience.


Beyond “La Jalousie,” Durand expands the theme of love to include personal

experiences. Durand’s own love life included many romantic relationships and two marriages,


the first of which, to Virginie Sampeur, ended in divorce. Virginie Sampeur, named Haiti’s first


poetess in several anthologies, was compared to Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and the Greek


poet Sappho in the Haitian press of the late nineteenth century.^220 The only Haitian woman


known to write poetry in the first 130 years of Haiti’s independence, she never published a


collection of her works. Between the few poems cited in anthologies and ones she wrote for the


turn-of-the century Haitian journal La Ronde, less than a dozen of her works remain accessible


today.^221 It is therefore difficult to devote a study to her poetry alone. As several poems in


Rires et Pleurs, illustrate, Durand’s marriage to Sampeur carries more significance than a


cursory review of Durand’s poetry would indicate. It cannot be ignored, for example, that the


years in which the couple was married, from 1862 to 1871, coincide with the period in which


Durand wrote his earliest poems and before he was known as a national poet. Many poems in


both books of Rires et Pleurs elaborate on the strong connection between love and poetry, and


the abundance of poetry is often tied to former moments when the poet was captured by


(^220) Christophe Charles and Virginie Sampeur, La Poésie Féminine haïtienne: histoire et anthologie de Virginie
Sampeur à nos jours (Port-au-Prince: Editions Choucoune, 1980).
(^221) Louis Morpeau believes an album of Sampeur’s poetry was lost prior to attempted publication. Sampeur
reportedly wrote an autobiographical novel, Angèle Dufour, which was also never published. Anthologie d’un
siècle de poésie haïtienne, 1817-1925, avec une étude sur la muse haïtienne d’expression française et une étude sur
la muse haïtienne d’expression créole (Paris: Bossard, 1925).

Free download pdf