heroes. Revolutionary ideals, present strife, and future hopes and fears account for the
vacillating tones and topics in Coicou’s poetry and the divided sentiments of the poet’s
subjectivity.
It is after the poet’s disclosure in “Introduction” that the Muse announces she willabandon the poet, as she cannot be part of Coicou’s mission. The muse bids her final farewell in
these verses, many of which begin with words of refusal:
Adieu, poète, adieu! Je m’en vais, je préfère
M’envoler loin de toi, remonter dans la sphère...
Non, j’aime trop les bois, les fleurs, l’azur du ciel ;
La nature a pour moi trop d’attraits, trop de charmes
Pour que je veuille en vain tarir, boire les larmes...
Tu voudrais m’accuser, mais dis, toi-même, enfin,
Dis, n’ai-je pas gémi sur ta Patrie en vain?... [...]
Pas un signe, poète, et ce qui te console
Et ce qui te sourit, n’est qu’un rêve frivole... (108-114, 124-125)What then is the significance of the muse’s repudiation? Is it that traditional poetry is notequipped for this type of mission, that poetry and the Haitian nation remain irreconcilable given
Haiti’s interminable political crises? Is there irresolvable conflict between poetic essence and
political purpose? These questions are the ones which Coicou undoubtedly was also posing, his
texts further probing into the calamities overwhelming Haitian society which involved, among
other issues, a flailing economy and the influence of the military on internal political affairs.
Coicou’s poetry often takes this reflective stance, pondering meaning of poetry, the urgency of
Haiti’s circumstances, and as revealed here, the earlier ambitions of Haitian poets. Ideas for
constructing and legitimizing a Haitian identity, as articulated by Haitian intellectuals in the
1830s, had included prescriptions for poetry as an essential component to such success; poets
like Durand, even when writing personal poetry later in the nineteenth century, were seen by
thinkers like Anténor Firmin as critical to combating theories of racial inequality. Additionally,