Poems (1939 and 1947) by Aimé Césaire

Introduction

Aimé Césaire was a Martinican poet who was one of the leading figures of the Négritude Links to an external site. movement, a Francophone literary movement that affirmed blackness as whole range of cultural values. Césaire's writing addressed the difficult position of the black colonial subject, and combined Surrealist Links to an external site. technique with a strong anti-colonialist message. Click here Links to an external site. for more on Césaire.

Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is a long poem (about 60 pages in the edition we are reading) that describes the poet's return to Martinique and the pitiable reality he rediscovers there. The poem is both a celebration of black identity and a revolt against French colonial rule, notable for its vivid imagery and striking rhythms. The language of the poem is very powerful, and is given free reign since the poem is written in free verse Links to an external site., rather than being constrained to a set form. In the opening pages that we are reading, the poet describes the city as the day begins.

The two other poems we are reading come from the collection Solar Throat Slashed, and take up the forceful imagery of the Notebook in the context of American racial politics.

 

Questions to guide your reading... 

Notebook of a Return to the Native Land

- What kinds of images and metaphors predominate in this poem?

- What parts and aspects of the city does the poet describe? (Be sure to read the note about the "morne.") How are they described?

- What characters emerge in these opening pages? How are they described?

- What significance might you give to "the end of daybreak" as the setting for the opening of this poem?

[Aimée Césaire], Artist unknown (c.1951) © SAIF, 2013

 "Mississippi"

- Who are the speaker and the addressee of this poem?

- What is the primary failing of the addressee?

- What kinds of things are to be found in the speaker's eyes? How do they correspond (or not) to the passivity we normally associate with vision? What do they seem to promise (or threaten)?

"The Tornado"

- Who are the characters in this poem? What do they have in common?

- What acts does the tornado carry out in this poem? How would you characterize it? Is it purely destructive?

- How does the idea of noticing too late in this poem relate to the idea of being unable to see in "Mississippi"?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street Near Market, Fort de France, Martinique, Artist unknown (1930)