In Coicou’s “Introduction,” the poet not only expresses his intent to focus on nationalheroes and national history, but he accepts what was the Muse’s charge in Durand’s poem to
write about the “hideux tableaux” of Haiti’s current political and social problems. In the long
summary detailing the topic which will comprise the collection, the poet in Coicou’s
“Introduction” emphasizes that he will indeed focus on violence and suffering. Although some
Haitian poetry, national in theme, had certainly been commemorative at times, the poet in
Coicou’s introductory poem relates that national poetry is not necessarily, and is even perhaps
rarely, celebratory. This is especially true when writing in the midst of economic disaster and
political chaos. This poetry will be written out of the grief over national difficulties. Note how
the idea of suffering is centered among these lines of verse:
Ces souffrances,
Ces pleurs, ces souvenirs, ces voeux, ces espérances
Qui toujours et partout reviennent me hanter:
Muse, c’est tout cela que je voudrais chanter. (104-107)Coicou also addresses the three specific subjects which will largely comprise hiscollection: history and revolution, the civil war and international aggression, and finally, by
extension, the black race. Haiti’s revolutionary heroes will be the inspiration behind his poetry:
Ce que je veux chanter, ce sont ces héros tels
Qu’on les nomme à genoux, ce sont ces immortels,
Ce sont ces demi-dieux, en qui mon âme fière
Se complait à bénir ma race tout entière, [sic]
Et dont la gloire monte embrassant l’avenir,
Refoulant le passé debout pour la ternir. (89-94)Coicou’s partial answer to Munro and Walcott’s question about how to envision Haiti’sfuture entails reviving the purest notions of Haiti’s revolutionary aspirations, an idealized past
which did not find expression in Haiti’s later political realities. The past which will be discarded
is the more immediate, or post-revolutionary past, and not the time of Haiti’s revolutionary