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Claude Mckay's 'If We Must Die'

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Claude Mckay's 'If We Must Die'
Read the poem, If We Must Die, by Claude McKay Answer the questions:
1. What theme or conflict is being dramatized in the poem? The main theme is honor, no matter the toughest of times we can always find the way to live with dignity and respect.
2. Can the poetic speaker be identified? The poet, Mr. McKay, is the speaker.
3. Who is the poetic speaker speaking to? The reader
4. What is the poetic speaker's motivation? Fight the toughest situations with pride and dignity.
5. What type of poem is it? Shakespearean sonnet, 14 lines long (3 quatrains or stanzas – lines 1 thru 12 and one couplet (lines 13 thru 14).
6. What is the rhyme scheme? ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
7. What is the Meter? Iambic pentameter (meaning five foot or iambs and 10 syllables in each line). …show more content…
First stanza – lines 1 thru 4 – the speaker and others African American men are being attacked and the speaker requests for them to respond to the attack.
Symbols: the words “hungry dogs” in line 3 symbolize the white men, the enemy men, that the speaker and the African American men are about to fight.
Figurative language: Line 1 is a metaphor, “If we must die, let it not be like hogs,” the speaker do not want us to die like pigs, a symbol of powerlessness.
Second stanza – lines 5 thru 8 - the speaker encourages African American men (his allies) to die honorably fighting against the white men.
Symbols: the word “monsters” in line 7 symbolize the white men (the enemy). In this stanza, the enemy are referred as “monsters” instead of “hungry
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