This article examines reflexivity in poetry within the context of social upheaval analyzing René Depestre’s volume of poetry Gerbe de sang and Sonny Rupaire’s Cette Igname brisée qu’est ma terre natale. The reflections on writing contained within the poems, as well as the reflections of the poets on their own function constitute the expression of a traditional, infinite literary interrogation that could be rephrased as follows: what can poetry accomplish and what is the poet’s purpose in society? In the metatext, singular postures emerge that we propose to analyze.