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Israel Magallon

Professor. Wilson

English 123

May 17, 2018

Fight with Honor and Courage

The Harlem renaissance was a powerful movement that saw great intellectual and artistic

expression. With Blacks fleeing the cruel and oppressive South. The city of Harlem in New York

came to life with Jazz music, paintings, and literary work. One of the many inspiring authors

who fought for the rights of blacks was Claude McKay. His work of literature challenged racism

to promote racial and social integration. McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica, in 1889. The

son of peasant farmers, he was infused with racial pride and a profound sense of his African

heritage. McKay moved to New York City where he encountered racism, and that racism made

him write poetry. His most inspirational poem titled “If We Must Die,” shows that the oppress

should fight with honor and courage to free themselves from the harsh world with dignity.

The poem is written in a Shakespearean sonnet which he did flawlessly in this poem.

There’s three stanzas with four lines each that have a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEF. At

the end of the two line we see the pattern of GG, better known as a rhyming couplet. The lines

are also written in iambic pentameter classical to this type of sonnet. The way he writes the poem

is to show the white man that times have changed. Now that blacks have the tools and education

to write and inspire others. That once thought that African Americans were inferior he proves

that he can do what any person can. He challenges the norms and in so is a way of protest for his
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people. He wants to make it clear that we are all human and just like a white man can write a

Shakespearean sonnet he can too.

McKay writes a structure poem containing anger and authority to fight aggression with

aggression. The first stanza is talking about death and it says if they do die don’t let it be like an

animal such as a hog. As hogs are always being hunted when they are running free. The

connection he makes with the animal has part to do with blacks being free but still getting

persecuted and lynch just for being a different skin color. The metaphor is evident comparing

human with hog. The speaker has the tone of a leader and is talking to his collogues to arm

themselves and although he doesn’t say who he is referring too. The implication of the poem is

written for those being persecuted or being killed to fight those who act with violence. To

essentially stand up for our own. He wants the oppressed to die with honor and fight back and

not just stand there waiting to get killed like an animal. The next part he writes “Hunted and

penned in an inglorious spot, while round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, making their mock

at our accursed lot” (lines 3-4). He uses another metaphor to describe the foe as a vicious dog

who has them penned in a corner and possible punishing them with words because they are

cursed with being different. A cursed of pride and patriotism for his culture. His word choices

are very particular in the first stanza. Words like “accursed” and “inglorious” are old English and

Latin origin. McKay did this to give the speaker a voice of authority and discipline. Giving that

in the old world many Kings or royal figures talk to their people like this when preparing them

for war. We see him carry the same command tone in the next stanzas.

McKay continues with the same design as his first stanza. He says, “If we must die—oh,

let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed” (lines 5-6). He wants the death of

his people to be meaningful. To die with cause like a noble should, fighting back. Than the next
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line he shows his sense of pride referring his blood as precious. Giving the meaning that his

blood is of hierarchy and worthy of decent death. The Harlem section in Norton says that

McKay’s, “poetry was sometimes violent and incendiary, but equally strong was his sense of

nostalgia and natural spiritualism”. He wants to be controversial and feels the pain his people are

suffering. The contents of his poems may be violent, but his resource is to fight fire with words.

The next lines he reasserts that even the scariest of creature like monsters which are intimidating.

Even they can’t get to their pride. As scary as they might seem they shouldn’t stop given them an

easy fight. At the end even if they do die those enemies are going to have honor and respect for

them.

The persistent call to duty is continued again with his third stanza. The voice seems as if

it’s getting louder as he calls his people O Kinsmen. McKay is almost done preparing his

soldiers for battle. It fallows with that even though they are less, and the enemy is more in

numbers they can still win the fight with one “deathblow” but that last final blow will cost them

their grave. Its interesting that he uses foe to rhyme with deathblow and brave to rhyme with

grave. The use of rhyme is precise, and it still sends the same message. The rhyming couplet at

the end of the poem is asserting what he already said. He confirms that the aggressors are

murders and cowards. Like men they will die but fighting those who call themselves humans.

Although “McKay denied that the poems referred to blacks and whites…the red summer

certainly inspired and shaped the poem”. The summer which refers to riots where many blacks

were killed. The truth is he felt anger and was in disbelief that his people were being killed. He

knows his people have suffer throughout history and felt the need to write and inspire others to

convey the message that enough is enough.

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The poem is full of anger and fiery but it’s a call to those who feel that the last resort is to

fight back with the same cruelty and no remorse. McKay’s poem maybe inciting violence but he

knows that even though times will change the truth is that people will always suffer in the hands

of those in power. He wrote this poem to those in need to gather courage and fill themselves with

honor because things need to change, and it starts with the brave.
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Works Cited

McKay, Claude. “If We Must Die.” Norton Introduction to literature, Edited by Kelly J. Mays,

W.W. Norton, 2017, pp. 1047

Mays, Kelly. “The Harlem Renaissance.” Norton Introduction to literature, Edited by Kelly J.

Mays, W.W. Norton, 2017, pp. 1037