Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

Haitian culture and thought? In a land that has constantly relived its past, how

can we imagine a Haitian future?^244

These timely observations and provocative questions surrounding Haiti’s bicentennial

and the coinciding political events were, as we have seen, part of the second such anniversary, an

additional set of circumstances which occasioned such reflection. In the nineteenth century,

Haitians began planning the centennial celebrations of Haitian independence with the creation of

an organization dedicated to this purpose. As American historian Brenda Plummer notes:

Since the early 1890s, Haitians had been preparing for the centennial celebration

of their national independence. Steeped in historical lore and imbued with an

awareness of the continuity of tradition, many felt a sense of urgency as 1904

approached. Could Haitians make the necessary leap into modernity?^245

On the eve of the centennial, Haiti’s poets, journalists, historians, and theorists continued

to construct their national history, critique internal politics, and contemplate the impact of

international events on Haiti’s economic and social viability. Their work is a valuable testimony

as to how Haitian intellectuals interpreted their own revolution as well as to how they perceived

the response of the West to their first century of independence. The tradition of Haitian poetry,

itself a “cultural repercussion” of previous events, remained the privileged genre in Haiti even

through the 1890s.

Poet, dramatist, and political activist Massillon Coicou was president of the committee

for the centennial celebrations, his poetry being an important precursor to this government

appointment. Although his poetry is perhaps less well-known than that of Oswald Durand or

Haitian poets of twentieth century, no other poet left a greater legacy in Haiti as a public figure

than Massillon Coicou. His assassination ordered under the presidency of General Nord Alexis

in 1908 changed Haiti’s political and literary landscape. For years to come, the circumstances

(^244) Munro and Walcott-Hackshaw x.
(^245) Brenda Plummer, Haiti and the Great Powers: 1902-1915 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988).