Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

Bisette’s interest in Wheatley’s poetry along with the other early "littérature des

Nègres" covered in the journal was in part the same as that of his source in

Grégoire: to show that people of African descent were capable of producing

literature and thus, according to an Enlightenment equation of literacy with

humanity, worthy of both freedom and civil rights.^99

In at least a portion of their verse, and especially in a journal which consisted of

contributions worldwide, it is Ardouin’s and Nau’s association with Haiti which served to further

Haiti’s claim to sovereignty in a world which had yet to acknowledge Haiti’s independence.^100

Haiti having poets, as Emile Nau prophesized that someday they would, was part of Haiti’s claim

to legitimacy. These editors believed that literary development, along with economics, history,

institutions, and traditions was essential in the construction of national identity.^101

Other poems are, however, more patriotic in nature. Given Haiti’s political uncertainty

with recognition, not only did Haiti need its poets for national legitimacy, but poets began to

claim national belonging as part of their own literary identity. The relationship though between

being Haitian and being poet was not always easily reconcilable, and in their poetry are

discernable traces of this tension. Ignace Nau’s excerpt subtitled “S’ils savent les oiseaux”

illustrates that an understanding of poetry is not without complications or sacrifice. This text,

part of a larger untitled poem, is a dialogue between the poet and Marie, the poet’s beloved and a

recurring figure in Nau’s poetry. In this portion of the text, in which the poet muses about the

innate knowledge held by these “bards of the sky,” Nau ultimately suggests a likeness between

bird and poet as intermediaries between physical and spiritual realms.

S’ils savent les oiseaux, ce que c’est que la vie,

S’ils ont le sentiment de la joie infinie,

(^99) Brickhouse 101.
(^100) In La Revue des colonies, Ardouin and Nau’s poems are usually introduced with their names and the qualifier
“un jeune haïtien,” or “poète haïtien.”
(^101) Le Républicain le 15 octobre 1836. One subscriber puts forth the question: “les sciences et les lettres font-elles
fleurir les états, contribuent-elles à l’agrandissement des peuples?”