The problems associated with love reveal better than any other topic how Haiti is stillcaught between the ideal of an independent nation-state and the reality of a society trapped in the
dynamics of plantation space. Love between Haitian men and women is still upset by the old
structures in which white men constantly assert their power.
3.6 THE CAGED BIRD AND A POET IN CHAINS
It is interesting to note at this juncture that Haitian responses to theories of racialinequalities, like those of Firmin referenced earlier, were contemporary to Durand’s writing and
came incredibly close to deconstructing race altogether. In responding to de Gobineau’s text,
Firmin calls it a “pseudo theory” which upon close scrutiny has no scientific basis. In the end,
however, and almost surprisingly, Firmin concludes that perhaps skin pigmentation is the only
reliable racial distinction.^230 Durand’s poetry demonstrates that it is the undeniable social
realities in Haiti which make discarding the issue of race so impossible. In poems about love,
the subject is most understated precisely when his racial oppositions create social divisions, and
not always in the realm of love. This understated subjectivity is a defining feature of Durand’s
poetry.
Parenthetically, I’d like to highlight another poem outside this latest theme but one whichnonetheless deals with pervasive hierarchies and the poet’s position in Haitian society. One of
the most overt comparisons between the white male foreigner in Haiti and the black poet is to be
(^230) Firmin 115 and 145.