Claude Mckay`S If We Must Die Essays - Harlem Renaissance

Claude Mckay`S ?If We Must Die? Poetry Claude McKay If We Must Die One of the most influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance was Jamaican born Claude McKay, who was a political activist, a novelist, an essayist and a poet. Claude McKay was aware of how to keep his name consistently in mainstream culture by writing for that audience. Although in McKays arsenal he possessed powerful poems. The book 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 lot of dialect and African American vernacular in his writing, which was rather controversial at the time. Writing in dialect wasnt considered proper for writing formal literature. For this paper I chose the poem If We Must Die, one of his strongest political poem included in Harlem Shadows. The subject matter that McKay writes about is confrontational. Even if McKay used classical poetry techniques to write If We Must Die. 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 but then it grew tremendously for a wider universal 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 put to death. This poem showed that everyone deserves a noble death, a death of honor and respect not to be beaten and treated like an animal but like a human being. If We Must Die was first published 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 that initiated the tone, subject and matter of the Harlem Renaissance. The poem is revolutionary, its the type of poem that makes people think and take action. He made the reader feel important and recognized the value of a human life. McKay believed part of the poets job is to politically inform the minds of people. Leading to the influence of such people as Amiri Baraka, starting the Black Arts Movement. The poem itself is a validation, recognition of the value of a human life. In the first line of the sonnet If we must die, let it not be like hogs. If we as humans die in whatever situation arises, let it not be like an animal, inhumane, without a name and unjust. If we must die, O let us nobly die, and eventhough the person might be by far outnumbered, beaten and maimed not to sit there and take the punishment. That there last breaths is one of victory because the person never stopped fighting back. Erasing the idea of passive resistance which made such people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. known for. Although the poem had a universal appeal, McKay published this poem through one of the fiercest times for African Americans. There were severe racial problems with Blacks and Whites through out sparking violence. In 1919 theyre where countless race riots in Harlem and all over the United States. This poem could have even fanned the flame that the race riots started. This poem itself moved people to stand up for themselves and I dont doubt that it did. This poem can easily be read today and appeal to todays society. It seems that there will always be an oppressed group, that is something we cant escape from. If the poem If We Must Die were read today, I feel it would move countless people into action. Especially now where there are a lot of problems with the New York City police department. The Police departments using tactics of racial profiling, countless shootings, and deaths of young African American and Latino men. No matter what decade we live in, same