Oswald Durand

Oswald Durand (September 17, 1840 – April 22, 1906) was a Haitian poet and politician, said to be "to Haiti what Shakespeare is to England, and Dante to Italy.

These 20th-century successors such as René Depestre, and Jacques Roumain congratulated Oswald Durand for his authentic expressions and honored him as a forerunner of Haitian indigenism.

Because of political instabilities in Haiti, he was forced to leave school and to educate himself without having recourse to a teacher.

He travels to France and is received with honor by the famous Jean Francois Coppe to the society of letters people.

[4] Oswald Durand was considered a national poet, he used to denounce social relations in his country.

In his text Poetry of Revolution Amy Reinsel stated that "In general, the poems in Rires et Pleurs illustrate the various reasons Durand was hailed as Haiti's national poet both during his lifetime and after his death" (Reinsel 106).

[citation needed] In Epopee des Aïeux he reveals himself as a patriot of the Haitian nation.

Lucmane Vieux in his article Poetry / Battle of Vertieres describes Oswald Durand 's Epopee des Aieux.

Lucmane Vieux presented a passage from Oswald Durand text and stated that: "Dessalines, one leap, is in the West.

Durand reveals as a patriot in his poem Ces Allemands where he describes the abuses of Germany to the Haitian government.

In his text, A Primer of Haitian Literature in Kreyol George Lang tells us the type of rhymes that he used: "Here too Kreyòl is subject to a European rhyme-scheme: ABABCCDD.

was stolen away by a French-speaker as recounted in a poem cast into a French verse form was likely not lost on readers of the time" (Lang 132).

Michel Mauleart Monton, a pianist of American origin, composed the music of the poem in 1893.

The lyric was performed by Harry Belafonte and Celia Cruz[7] and was successful in the summer of 1961 when the band Arthur Lyman reached number 4 of Billboard Hot100 and number 2 of the brand new easy listening with its Hawaiian instrumental version.