Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

until 1862, became more interested in Haiti as in other Caribbean locales for strategic reasons by

the 1890s, when intervention was more of a possibility. The United States’ interest in an inter-

oceanic canal and mercantilism made the Caribbean in general a strategic center militarily and

economically.^270 The U.S. secured Puerto Rico in 1898 and by 1904 had secured the zone for

the completion of the Panama Canal. For much of the nineteenth century, the United States had

sought to prohibit European influence in the Western Hemisphere through its Monroe Doctrine,

and concerns were especially growing related to German interest and investment in the

Caribbean.

The changing balances of power near the end of the century meant Haiti’s constant

vulnerability from various angles. While poems in this second book of Poésies Nationales do

speak specifically of the German, American and even Spanish aggression, others throughout the

collection cite foreign threats in general, new and old. The title of the poem “Encore Eux” deals

with the continual invasions or threats thereof which mark the Haitian experience. The poem

begins with this stanza:

Ils sont venus chez nous, forts, menaçants, avides,

Voulant, avec du sang, marquer leurs moindres pas,

Remplis d’espoir, tendant vers nous leurs mains cupides,

Et réclament enfin ce que nous n’avons pas. (1-4)

None of the poem’s details refer to a specific foreign presence or to other current events

which may have inspired the text. In fact, as in other poems, the source of aggression remains

ominously unnamed. More important for the Haitian poet appears to be the characteristics of the

invader, notably greed and violence, rather than the identity, as the threat is the same regardless

of the source. As other poems will illustrate, the foreigner, whether specifically named or more

generally referenced, is consistently described as an insulting, invading, and mocking presence

(^270) Plummer 11.