summary This poem is a defiant call to protest. The speaker warns against passive acceptance of hostility and urges people to fight back. He suggests that death is inevitable but can be noble if it serves a cause. The final couplet states the speaker’s resolve to die fighting. If We Must Die

Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious1 spot, LITERARY ANALYSIS While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. c 5 If we must die, O let us nobly die, Possible answer: The rhyme scheme is So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy abab, cdcd. On the basis of this rhyme Shall be constrained2 to honor us though dead! c c SONNET scheme, the sonnet is Shakespearean. O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! State the rhyme scheme of lines 1–8. Considering 10 Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, If students need help . . . Refer them to the rhyme scheme, what page 847 and the definitions of Petrarchan And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! type of sonnet is this? and Shakespearean . What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! d d FORM AND MEANING By the end of the poem, what resolution has the READING SKILL speaker reached? d form and meaning Possible answer: The speaker decides that he will fight back even if he dies fighting. 1. inglorious: shameful; disgraceful. 2. constrained: forced. If students need help . . . Have them record line groupings and main ideas in the pre- 850 unit 5: the and modernism reading chart introduced on page 847. Line Grouping Main Idea L11PE-u05s12-IfWeDie.indddifferentiated 850 instruction 8/31/06 4:11:51 PM First quatrain We won’t die like hogs hunted by dogs. for less–proficient readers for advanced learners/ap Second quatrain If we must die, we will Comprehension Support [paired option] Research McKay wrote “If We Must Die” do it nobly. Have student pairs work together to during the “,” a term coined respond to these questions about “If We by James Weldon Johnson to describe the Must Die”: racially violent summer and fall of 1919 selection wrap–up • Who is the speaker? during which African Americans were the victims of violent attacks. Have students • What is the speaker’s message? SYNTHESIZE Invite students to comment on research the causes of these events, noting what Johnson’s and McKay’s works contrib- Invite pairs to share their responses. Ask in particular the significance of McKay’s uted to the Harlem Renaissance. students to explain their thinking by poem as a part of the response to them. providing examples from the poem. Find opportunities for students to present their findings to the class. 850 unit 5

LL11TE-u05s02-mycity.indd11TE-u05s02-mycity.indd 850850 11/4/07/4/07 112:56:562:56:56 PMPM