Learning Task 6: Read the poem carefully. Then, answer the questions that

follow. Do this in your notebook.



If We Must Die

By: Claude McKay (1889–1948)


If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

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!


Questions:

1. What do the first four lines establish?


2. What message does the persona forward to his allies?


3. How does the persona describe his enemies?


4. According to the poet, how can one die nobly?


5. Using the Venn diagram below, compare and contrast the specific

messages and/or values presented in the poem and in the article in

Learning Task 5​