Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

which not only degrades and blasphemes the memory of the Haitian Revolution but also

continues to jeopardize Haiti’s present and future sovereignty.

Strikingly apparent in Coicou’s poetry is the frustration that others in Haiti especially

ignored his observations. In the poem “L’Eveil” which also mentions numerous international

threats, the poet is again alone in his warnings and ignored by his countrymen:

Et lorsque dans la foule, une voix passe et crie

Caveant consules! frères, j’entends des pas!

Veillons sur le drapeau! veillons sur la Patrie! »

On la nomme alarmiste et l’on n’écoute pas !... (13-16)

The Latin phrase is from Roman political discourse and means “Let the Consuls beware;”

it was decreed in the Roman Senate during the time of the Republic whenever there was thought

to be danger. It was a warning to the consuls not to take advantage of their government position,

as there is a fine line between autocracy and consultation with the Senate in times of crisis. This

is the poet’s warning then, likely to Haitian leaders in dealing with Western powers. Complicity

on the part of Haitian leaders was a major factor in an eroding independence. Summarizing the

actions of numerous later nineteenth-century Haitian leaders, historian David Nicholls says that

“despite this determination to defend the independence of Haiti in theory, the practice of

politicians, given military control and corruption, was quite otherwise.”^271 These poems bring to

the fore the stark dichotomy between the black military and economic elite with the larger

Haitian population. Another Latin phrase is the epitaph of the poem “L’Eveil”: “Timeo

Danaos,” the beginning of the complete phrase “timeo Danaos [...] donas ferentes” from

Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 2 where the Trojan priest Laocoon warns his countrymen not to accept the

Trojan horse.^272 It means “I fear the Greeks and the gifts they bear.” Obviously applicable to

(^271) Nicholls 139.
(^272) Virgil, Virgil/Aeneid, trans. Stanley Lombardo (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2005) 28.