Mistral, he understood that modern progress meant the demise of traditional Provence.^263 His
provençal verse can simultaneously refer to both the language of his poetry as well as the culture
about which he wrote, and it is the language issue which perhaps differentiates Mistral and
Coicou the most. Coicou did not write in Creole as Mistral did in Provençal, although as alluded
to in previous chapters, this can be explained by several factors. It is important to remember that
while Creole was the sole language of most Haitians then as it is today, few Haitians were
literate either in French or in Haitian Creole. Furthermore, although a few Creole texts were
published prior to the twentieth century (including Durand’s “Choucoune,”), it was not until the
1940s that there was any serious effort to develop orthography for Haitian Creole.^264 Most
nineteenth-century linguists considered creoles not as distinct languages but as deformations of
French, English, Portuguese, etc. Writing exclusively in Haitian Creole was hardly a viable
option for Haitian writers at this time. The mention of Mistral, however, remains relevant, as it
demonstrates that poetry remained a contested terrain of cultural identity and not just in colonial
or postcolonial locales. This contestation is strongly linked to folklore and popular culture for
poets like Mistral and Durand. Coicou’s poetry contests versions of Haitian history and draws
attention to political corruption, thereby accentuating the rivalries among Haitian elites.
A second epigraph follows Mistral’s, one by Horace which in Latin reads: “Prima dictemihi, summa dicende camoena” and whose English translation is “You who were celebrated in
my earliest shall be celebrated in my latest.” This opening line from Horace’s epistle is
addressed to his patron, Maecenas, and begins a poem in which the poet says he will give up
lyric poetry for philosophy. Coicou’s first—but at this time yet unpublished poems—had indeed
(^263) The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995) 532-533.
(^264) For information on the history, development and use of Haitian Creole, see Albert Valdman’s Le créole:
Structure, statut et origine (Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1978).