Claude McKays If We Must Die Essay -- essays research papers fc

Claude McKays If We Must founderOne of the most important sources of the Harlem Renaissance was Jamaican born Claude McKay, who was a political activist, a novelist, an litterateur and a poet. Claude McKay was aware of how to keep his name consistently in mainstream refine workforcet by makeup for that audience. Although in McKays arsenal he have powerful poems. The appropriate that included such revolutionary poetry is Harlem Shadows. His 1922 book of poems, Harlem Shadows, Barros acknowledged that this poem was said by many to have inaugurated the Harlem Renaissance. throughout McKays writing career he used a sight of dialect and African American vernacular in his writing, which was rather arguable at the time. Writing in dialect wasnt considered proper for writing formal literature. For this paper I chose the poem If We Must ease up, unity of his strongest political poem included in Harlem Shadows. The correction matter that McKay writes nigh is confrontational. Even if McKay used classical poetry techniques to write If We Must slip by. McKay used the poetry technique of the sonnet by using the 13 lines and 1 last line in the end. In If We Must Die McKay uses rhymes, and metaphors to associate and personify the poem. Using these techniques the audience can identify with the writer and the poem itself. The poem at first seems to have been written for a black audience moreover then it grew tremendously for a wider general audience. This poem spoke to anyone and everyone who was being oppressed or in a situation that they werent in control of. This poem was for anyone who is or was upchuck to death. This poem showed that everyone deserves a noble death, a death of honor and wonder non to be beaten and treated like an animal but like a humankind being. If We Must Die was first publish in the Liberator in 1919. Then in his compilation of poetry Harlem Shadows in 1922. Where already the world war had ended. It was one of the very first poems t hat initiated the tone, subject and matter of the Harlem Renaissance. The poem is revolutionary, its the type of poem that makes people come back and take action. He made the reader feel important and know the value of a human life. McKay believed part of the poets job is to politically protest the assessments of people. Leading to the influence of such people as Amiri Baraka, starting the disastrous Arts Movement. The poem itself is a validation, r... ...Must Die made the reader, a human being feel important. Instead of seeing yourself as lower than dirt, adapting the mind of the oppressed and not fighting back. We must not sit rough while horrendous things happen in our society. If we want a agitate we have to do it ourselves. Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back. If We Must Die If we must die, allow it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and supperless dogs, Making their mock at our accursed 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 go 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 deathblow What though before us lies the open grave? Like men well face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back Bibliography industrial plant CITED - Arno A long way home1937 New York Times 1969 - Barros, capital of Minnesota De The Loud Music Of life Representations of Jazz In the Novels of Claude McKay. Antioch Review, Summer 1999. - Claude McKay (1890-1948) edge 26, 2000