Oswald Durand was a Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an poet and politician. Durand is said to be "to Haiti what Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 is to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Dante

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

 to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

." Among his most famous works are Choucoune

Choucoune (poem)

"Choucoune" is an 1883 poem by Haitian Oswald Durand. Its words are in Haitian Creole and are the lyrics to the song "Choucoune" which was later rewritten in English as "Yellow Bird", the title based on the words "ti zwazo" from the Durand poem....

, a lyrical poem praising the beauty of a Haitian woman, and Chant National, a lyrical historic poem which became as popular as the presidential hymn.

Born in Cap-Haïtien

Cap-Haïtien

Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...

, Durand worked as a teacher before being elected to Congress in 1885, a position to which he was re-elected six times. He was involved with several periodicals and newspapers, serving as advisor, writer, and, in a few cases, founder.

Selected works

• Rires et Pleurs - published 1897
• Choucoune - published 1883
• Chant National
• Ces Allemands - published 14 June 1872
• Pantoum Triste
• La Mort de nos Cocotiers