beyond it, especially in its earliest years. Some of the most intense patriotic verse had dominated
Haiti’s literary scene in the 1880s, not only by Durand and Coicou but by other Haitian poets like
Tertulien Guillbaud. Michael Dash describes the Haitian writer at the turn of the century as one
who “could no longer have a secure and confident voice in the face of such political absurdity,”
and who therefore shifts his poetry to themes which are more private and contemplative.^298 This
impact of Haiti’s social and political reality on Haitian poetic sensibility had of course been
observed by Haitians of that generation. In a letter to Coicou, editor Pétion Gérome wrote:
Comment voulez-vous, mon cher Coicou, que des hommes d’une génération aussi
sacrifiée n’arrivent pas souvent à vouloir rompre avec tout espoir d’avenir
national et a s’enfoncer dans un pessimisme de plus en plus désenchanté ?..Le
pays entier leur offre l’aspect d’un vaste champ de course traversé par des
ouragans de détresse...Le tableau de la patrie malheureuse s’associe
involontairement dans leur esprit à des images de deuil, à des signes
emblématiques de funérailles.^299We have already, however, witnessed this reflective stance in Coicou’s work, as well asthe personal angst that political crises can induce. Coicou was not immune to citing aesthetic
and political frustrations as well as the difficulties of literature predicated on the nation. The
intensity of his questioning which we see so pronounced in the early years of the twentieth
century already surfaces as a complicated dynamic within Coicou’s single collection. Wrestling
with his poetic mission, with national commitment, with belief in God, all contributed to his own
moments of crisis. His spirituality may be more Christian in nature than other writers associated
with La Ronde, but the general metaphysical nature of some poems certainly demonstrate
similarities. In the moments in which Coicou shares the desperation and uncertainty of La Ronde
writers, however, he balances these lows with an ultimate hope in God’s power. Coicou’s poem
“Le poète à Dieu” which follows the poem “La muse au poète” is one of the most obvious
(^298) Dash, Literature 33.
(^299) Pétion Gérome, letter, La Ronde (1898): 39.