The poet also defends the ideal of love in poems which focus on foreign white womeneven when speculation about the future of their relationship seems less than promising. The
poems “Ne pleure pas,” and “Tristia,” for example, feature French women living in Haiti who
miss their homeland and desire to return. The poet, however, tries to convince them that the love
of a Haitian man, some “brun jeune homme,” will form a new “patrie” and replace their longing
for a distant land if he can only convince them to stay. However, both poems end with the
women choosing to return to France. Attachment to one’s nation is stronger than cross-cultural
love, and love cannot in fact be the new country. In “A une étrangère,” the poet seemingly
upholds the ideal and embraces what these French women have rejected. He declares that he
would gladly leave his own country to be with Rose, the woman he loves. However, a series of
exaggerated offers in the poem hint at a playfulness that make his declaration seem less than
sincere. He begins by saying he would give his life if she would just look at him, but he later
diminishes the offer by suggesting it is probably too little to offer so little:
Pour un regard de tes yeux
Si bleus qu’ils feraient envie,
A l’azur de nos grand cieux,
Je voudrais donner ma vie...
Mais n’est-ce pas qu’il est tard
Pour t’offrir, Rose
Si peu de chose
Pour un regard?...(1-8)The poet offers to surrender all of his joy for just a piece of her hair and abandon hisfamily for a mere kiss. Both times the refrain repeats “si peu de chose.” In the final stanza,
however, he says that for her love, “Je laisserais la patrie,” which he specifies, unlike his other
offers, is “beaucoup de chose/Pour ton amour....” Not only does this slight change indicate that
indeed abandoning his homeland is too much to offer, but nothing in the poem hints that their
love would be reciprocal. The fact that she likely would never have accepted makes the offer an