SOURCE: "Filling in Reader Gaps in Poems by Léon-Gontran Damas," in French Literature Series, Vol. XIX, 1992, pp. 47-56.

In the essay below, Brown analyzes two of Damas's poems: "Ils sont venus ce soir" and "Contre notre amour qui ne voulait rien d'autre."

Black francophone writer, Léon-Gontran Damas, portrays in his poetry the sad results of black/white confrontations in his native French Guiana. Leaving spaces for reflection, gaps to be filled by a creative reader, Damas has developed an art of nonspecificity, a writing technique rich and provocative in powers of suggestion. Although Sartre identifies the intended reader of black francophone poetry as a black reader, this body of literature, including Damas' poems, has universal implications and is open to careful and imaginative scrutiny of readers everywhere.

In his poem, "Ils sont venus ce soir" [from Pigments, Névralgies], Damas evokes the tragic, lamentable moment in...