Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

Massillon Coicou in Durand’s collection, likely referenced in verse three as rires and pleurs. In

the analysis of Durand’s poem, I suggested that the poets’ discussion about poetry lent itself to

an ambiguous reading, as the poem ended with Durand’s voice but in what seemed to be more a

continuation of their dialogue than a conclusion. The poet’s decision in Coicou’s “Introduction”

is much more definitive, as the poet’s devotion will be unapologetically and singularly devoted

to national causes:

Non; car j’étais heureux!...Mais hélas! maintenant

Plus de bonheur pour moi. C’est la pauvre Patrie,

Elle sur qui je pleure et pour qui mon cœur prie,

C’est la Patrie, objet de mon culte sacré,

Qu’avec toi, désormais, ma sœur, je chanterai. (82-86)

Although the “toi” to whom the poet speaks is still the muse, the “Patrie” will inspire and

define the scope of this project. Now that the poet has explained what will constitute poetry for

him, he hopes the muse will join him. It is the poet’s intent to combine a commitment to poetry

with one to his country. A new allegiance is pledged to patriotic sentiments.

Not only do these verses introduce the reader to the difference of Coicou’s project, but in

conjunction with Durand’s “La voix de la Patrie,” they may even lead to a different interpretation

of the latter. Durand’s refrain “Salut ô plaines ô verts gazons!” read in the previous chapter as a

“hail” to nature could also be seen as a “farewell” to nature poetry and an affirmation of

Coicou’s ambitions. Although Coicou was twenty-seven years Durand’s junior, both poets were

writing in the late 1880’s, a period in which Durand’s own poetry moved into its most political

phase. In this way, the dialogue between Durand and Coicou in Durand’s “La voix de la patrie”

represents an affirmation of Coicou’s poetic focus, commissioning a new direction for Haitian

poetry in the closing years of the nineteenth century.