Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

One incident in particular involved the British ship, “Bull-dog,” an incident which is no

different, the poet stresses, than the events involving the German captain Batch or the Spanish

admiral Rubalcava. By bringing foreigners into domestic affairs and thereby comprising Haitian

sovereignty, Geffrard had also reopened regional wounds in Haiti between factions in the North,

West, and South. His actions for the poet are unforgivable and leave a stain on the nation’s

history as well as on Geffrard’s presidential legacy. Although the leaders in Coicou’s day are not

ever specifically named in his poetry, one could argue that by extension similar judgments are

rendered against them as well. “Cauchemar,” for example, is addressed to a Haitian deputy,

suggesting, as do other poems, that the message targets the Haitian elite even if the poet supposes

a foreign audience. The venomous attacks on foreign powers serve as a rhetorical strategy to

stimulate action and unity on the part of Haitian leaders.

The domestic conflict most central to Coicou’s collection involved the series of events of

the late 1880s and early 1890s, which included the civil war of 1888-1889. Coicou’s poem

“L’Alarme” is stylistically and thematically very similar to “L’Eveil” but is more focused on

Haiti’s civil wars:

Oh la guerre civile!... Avec sa face sombre,

Fécondant ardemment des passions sans nombre,

Elle nous pousse encore à nous entr’egorger ;

Elle vient, dans nos cœurs, briser l’amour qui vibre,

Patrie, et t’inspirer le remords d’être libre,

Aux applaudissements railleurs de l’Etranger! (19-24)

The poet likely refers to Haiti’s civil wars in general as well as the one of his own time.

These verses mirror others in poems entitled “Haiti,” “La guerre civile,” and

“Réflexions,” all in section two of Poésies Nationales, in which mocking foreigners gloat at

Haiti’s civil war. Moreover, in these poems the speaker recognizes fact that Haiti’s difficulties