Puis la fleur se sécha sous un vent délétère;
Le luth vit s’envoler ses sons mélodieux. (1-6)The poem goes on to describe these two figures whose lives, emotions, and voices weredeeply entwined: “C’est qu’ils étaient deux luths, deux vrais cœurs de poètes,/ Deux harpes aux
sons purs vibrant à l’unisson.” In the end, the text suggests that for Estelle, her verse took a
decisive turn toward grief and silence after the rupture. As for the male poet, he would continue
to write, but his work would bear the traces of their separation. Opposing terms which denote
happiness and grief, first used to qualify the two characters (“l’un riant, l’autre sombre”) but also
used in other contexts in the poem, unmistakably evoke the title of Durand’s collection. In this
way, the two lyres or the two poetries not only refer to Estelle and the poet but also allude to the
dual subjectivity within Durand’s poetry.
Durand in no way pays tribute to Virginie Sampeur as overtly as he does to DemesvarDelorme. As these poems indicate, this could be due to the conflicting emotions which surround
her memory, so that any import she had as a poet is largely overshadowed by her role as a lover.
Unfortunately the paucity of detail on Durand’s and Sampeur’s personal and professional
relationship may leave the extent of her influence greatly underestimated. It is known, however,
that Sampeur began publishing her poems in regional journals eight to ten years before Durand
submitted any of his works; at least initially, she would have been the more established poet.
Durand created and edited in 1901 a short-lived Haitian literary journal called Les Bigailles, and
in one issue he includes an article about Virginie Sampeur’s poetry and discusses the importance
of developing a feminine voice in Haitian letters.^222 This entry and the poems about and for
“Estelle” represent the subtle ways in which Durand acknowledges her influence on his poetry.
(^222) Oswald Durand, Les Bigailles (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de l’Abeille, 1901). Page numbers not included.