sections of this text come about when the poet’s own subjectivity breaks through the dominant
descriptions of past heroes and he sees such beauty in military fight:
Alors, je vous contemple! Alors, je vous bénis!
Et j’invoque cette heure où vos enfants, unis
Imposeront votre œuvre au monde!...et je regrette,
Moi, vieux cœur enfiévré d’idéal, moi, poète,
De n’être pas venu, même un siècle plus tôt,
Pour combattre avec vous! ...
Ce dut être si beau! (89-95)The beauty he invokes was not limited to the actions of these heroes but would have beenmore about the poet’s actual participation in this process. In this stanza alone, the first personal
pronouns “moi” or “je” occur six times, and in many instances they are juxtaposed to the direct
object pronoun “vous.” The contemplation becomes a sort of mirrored reflection as poetry melds
with history and words with actions. Specifically, the substantive “œuvre” implies both the
poet’s work of art and the soldiers’ military feats. More generally, the verbs of action with those
of thought signify the combination of contemplation, invocation, the imposition of ideas as well
as forceful combat. There is also no doubt that Coicou considered his book to be a political
project and part of a larger political process. Nowhere is this clearer than in the closing poem
titled “Adieu,” a poem not yet mentioned up this point. Also a sonnet, it is in the opening
quatrain and closing tercet that we find him addressing his own writing directly for the first time.
This poem simultaneously serves as a conclusion to the project, a farewell to poetry, surrender to
God, and the issuance of a final commission:
Mon livre, lance-toi dans l’arène, et combats.
N’écoute point ceux-la qu’étonne ton audace,
Sans morgue, pour l’honneur du Pays, prends ta place,
O mon livre parmi les plus vaillants soldats.Que tu montres que rien n’est encore perdu,
Et que toi sois enfin le clairon éperdu
Soufflant dans les cœurs l’âme de la Patrie! (1-4, 13-15)