Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

Ce ciel est trop désert, ce soleil sans rayon,

Ces champs, de mon pays, là-bas sous l’horizon,

N’ont point la nature si vive. (37-42)

If we read this poem as another search for community, it ends in solitude and

disappointment. The experience of this Haitian in France, even as poet, is a lonely enterprise.

Nature in France is different, even inferior. In this way, “Basses Pyrénées” is not just the title

but indicates a lower position in the poet’s esteem. Words such as “entraîner” and “jeté” express

the overall passivity of the subject, whose journey was nonetheless part of the poet’s destiny. It

is exile that leads to nostalgia and national pride, to remembering the homeland, not only as

“foyer,’ but as a “source de rayonnement”: a central point from which to transmit ideas and a

source of poetic inspiration:

Qu’il est resplendissant et d’azur et de feu

Le ciel de ma patrie, et si vaste et si bleu!

Puis, quand notre soleil voyage dans l’espace

Et, de ses rayons d’or remplit l’immensité,

Quel oeil d’aigle oserait fixer la majesté

De son orbe qui roule et passe! (43-48)

The limitlessness in Haiti’s natural beauty will in fact be a main focus in Nau’s poetry

and a distinctive marker of national expression. Interestingly, this same poem in La Revue des

colonies and in subsequent publications of Nau’s poetry is entitled “A ma patrie.” The visit to

France incites a feeling of patriotism which would only have come through departure and which

would only be possible for one who has a country.

Similarly, in the poem “Pensées du soir,” it is in France where recognition of Haiti’s

beauty is realized, as Haiti’s nature increasingly takes on a superior quality. This is the only one

of Nau’s poem which bears a specific date and place. Writing on a boat sailing to France in

1836, the poet in “Pensées du soir” declares:

Ah! Vous ne savez pas ce que c’est que la nuit!