Poetry
Poésies nationales
Not translated into English
Massillon Coicou · 1892
Synopsis
Poems that celebrate the heroes of Haitian independence, Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines, Christophe and Pétion among others, and sing of love and the homeland. The collection does not stop at praise: it also criticises the Haitian society of its time, and one of its pieces attacks money as king and the imperialism of the United States, which it sums up in an English phrase.
Context
The book appeared in Paris in 1892 with Goupy et Jourdan, under the mention of first series, with a preface by Charles-D. Williams, according to the catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It earned its author the nickname of national bard, and the historian Hénock Trouillot judged it more mature than the two collections of 1903. Sens public quotes the lines in which the poet denounces American power. Les Presses nationales d'Haïti reissued it in 2005.
Who it is for
A collection of verse in French of nearly three hundred pages, in the public domain; it assumes the reader knows those who founded the Haitian state and their struggles.
Prizes and reception
The collection led to its author being named national bard, and a Port-au-Prince publisher reissued it more than a century after its publication.
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