TO TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE
TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy of men!
Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon’s earless den; –
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies
,And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.
-William Wordsworth
It is very fulfilling, if not delightful and instructive, to revisit one of the classic poems from antiquity every once in a while. Most recently it was one of the most famous sonnets from Shakespeare’s incomparable collection – the greatest collection of short poems of all time, even when one considers the formidable contender, which is John Donne’s Holy Sonnets.
The selection revisited from that volume of 150 sonnets was “Sonnet 130” or “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun”. This is among the best known, revered, but among the most misunderstood of all those poems. In fact, considering its popularity, it ranks among the most misread and misinterpreted poems. That extraordinary collection of 150 sonnets has its wonders, its dark horses, its mysteries and its little understood items. Remarkably, it contains some of the boldest and truest claims ever made by any poet, that nothing at all can outlast the destruction of time:
“unless this miracle have might
That in black ink my love shall still shine bright” (Sonnet 65)
or the confident claim that his verse will live forever:
“So long as men can breathe and eyes can see
So long lives this and this gives life to thee”. (Sonnet 18).
The poem we turn to this week is of that ilk. It is not as remarkable a sonnet as Shakespeare’s or of Donne’s, but it is one that immortalises. It pays tribute and preserves the reverence paid to a hero, helping to make his presence last forever, and emphasises his place in history.
That poem is “To Toussaint L’Ouverture”, a sonnet by William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 – April 13, 1850) the great founding luminary of Romantic Poetry. Unlike the Shakespeare or Donne sonnets, it is not quite so well known, and there is absolutely no problem with its interpretation. But its theme is immortality, heroism and an expression of a spirit that will indeed “have might”, that will indeed live “so long as men shall breathe” and indeed “gives life” to the hero Toussaint.
The English poet Wordsworth is credited with having founded the Romantic Movement in 1798 along with his colleague Samuel Taylor Coleridge when they published Lyrical Ballads, the virtual manifesto of Romantic Poetry. However, the spirit and philosophy of that poetic movement were in existence years before, through the work of Scotsman Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) with his proletarian outlook and concern for humanity, and even in William Blake (1757 – 1827). They are sometimes called the Pre-Romantics.
Among the early influences and philosophical thoughts that helped to inform the Romantic era were the same storm clouds that ushered in the French Revolution, on the dark winds of the Jacobin slogans “liberte, egalite, fraternite”. There was the supremacy of the peasantry and of the proletariat, the nobility of the field workers and farm dwellers and the concern for humanity. It was a revolutionary ideal aimed against the aristocratic classical sense of order and reason. It gave ascendancy to human feelings, to emotions, brotherhood, love of the countryside, nature and shades of the supernatural.
There was a moving spirit that ushered in revolution in France as it did in Haiti. It is therefore not surprising that Wordsworth, already a poet with an ideological interest in humanity, would have taken an interest, or taken note of the Haitian revolution and of Toussaint. The middle-aged, self-taught coachman led the slaves in Haiti to a successful revolt against the French, out manoeuvring all European powers and creating their own sovereign state.
After years of war, Toussaint was betrayed and sold out to the French by his own generals Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe, who were impatient at the pace at which the final creation of the Haitian republic was taking, unappreciative of Toussaint’s methods and thirsty for power. The liberator was captured by Napoleon, who he had already defeated in war, and imprisoned at Fort de Joux in France.
That Wordsworth would have written a poem like this is an indication of the impact the Haitian revolution had on the rest of the world, and the fame of its leader, Toussaint. Other European powers apart from France took an interest in Haiti and some tried to take advantage of a young, inexperienced fledgling semi-state, unaccustomed to independence. They did not bargain for the cunning and maturity of mind of Toussaint, who managed to stave them off.
Surely, the revolutionary spirit and the heroic stature of the man who led black slaves to victory over Europe would also have appealed to poets in England who were themselves sympathetic to the abolition movements and already fighting for the end of slavery in the British Parliament.
Reading the poem, it is clear that Wordsworth saw Toussaint as a tragic hero and dwells on his captivity, his betrayal and dehumanisation. The first line of the poem actually quotes the words of the hero himself from an autobiographical text Memoir of Toussaint Louverture, Written by Himself: “I am made the most unhappy of men; my liberty is taken from me,” (J R Beard, 1863).
The triumph of Haiti and the fame of Toussaint were well known at the time and inspired a number of creative works, apart from Wordsworth’s sonnet. The poem expresses the tragic and protests the state to which a great hero had been reduced.
Yet a main theme of it is immortality. It is a rally against defeat, making mention of the plough and the “Rustic” beginnings among the people glorified by the Romantic poets themselves in the fields. It builds up to very powerful exhortations that take inspiration from the Haitian leader’s achievements and in turn give inspiration to the spirit of revolution. These are earth-moving words – “Thou hast left behind /Powers that will work for thee, air, earth and skies”.
It goes even higher – “There’s not a breathing of the common wind /That will forget thee”. The poet ends on the highest note of all, that among Toussaint’s “great allies” is “man’s unconquerable mind”. That last is perhaps the best tribute to the Haitian leader, comparing his consciousness and what he inspired to that high quality in the mind of man.
Ironically, after the betrayal of Toussaint, Dessalines took power in Haiti as a revolutionary leader, but was a Eurocentric megalomaniac and a despot who crowned himself Emperor in contradiction of the republicanism that drove Haitian independence.
The Haiti revolution was recorded as the most successful slave rebellion in history; the first black state to be created by slaves who freed themselves. Toussaint is set up in history as the revolutionary leader who created that.
