Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

Haitian military was part of Coicou’s family heritage. Pierre-Louis died when Massillon was

just eight, and he was raised by his mother Amica, a religious woman who worked tirelessly to

provide her eleven children with an education. The Coicou family included several teachers,

doctors, and journalists. They were part of the rising black elite in Haiti during a time in which

class emerges as a category which is not always easily correlated with color.^247 Coicou’s

schooling began at a religious institution, the Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne, and he

remained a devout Catholic throughout his life. In various autobiographical accounts, Coicou

explained his early interests in letters, specifically recalling the poetry and theater of Alcibiade

Bathier, a minor Haitian writer who produced several poetic and theatrical works in the 1860s

and 1870s. In Haiti’s literary journal La Ronde, Coicou would later recount the memory of his

first encounter with Bathier:

Quand je connus Bathier, je n’avais que six ans...ce fut en ma première école,

chez mon premier maître[...]Le vénéré Dorcelly Etienne, époux d’une sœur du

poète, devait à ce titre la joie d’abriter Bathier...Un soir de distribution des prix,

je débitai avec mon verbe et ma verve d’enfant intelligent et singeur Maître

corbeau sur un arbre perché, [...]Bathier, lui, m’embrassa fort et me dit,...Pour

cela je te ferai cadeau d’un gros livre...Ce fut en 73. Bathier est mort neuf ans

plus tard, et jamais il ne m’a donné mon gros livre, le méchant.

Or, quand parut le gros livre qu’est Sous les Bambous, et que je l’appris et

que revins du long étonnement...qu’Alcibiade était un grand poète national,

quand je l’appris, je cherchai à revoir Bathier;[ ...]Quand je le retrouvai, oh!

L’étrange sentiment que j’éprouvai à lui parler! car il n’était plus mon Alcibiade à

moi, mais le Bathier de tout le monde, un poète en pleine gloire.^248

In these early impressions, Coicou emphasized his admiration not just for Bathier but for

Haiti’s national poets. He reminisced with pride the literary talent that could be found in Haiti

and the makings of a literary tradition which could be attributed to Haitian poets and

(^247) For David Nicholls’ use of the terms “color” and “race” see how this distinction is explained in this dissertation
in the chapter on Oswald Durand.
(^248) Massillon Coicou, “Souvenirs et Impressions: Bathier,” La Ronde [Port-au-Prince] le 5 septembre 1898: 78.