See also: “If We Must Die” (excerpts) by Claude McKay – John Green Reads Poetry
The brothers’ related banter…
John: But, uh, I don’t know. The point is, you can’t download a pizza or a sandwich for that matter. Uh, I feel that we should move on to the, uh, the short poem for the day.
Hank: If you want to.
John: Alright. This is a poem by Claude McKay. Hank, I don’t know if you’re familiar with his work- one of the major poets of the Harlem Renaissance, but for some reason much less famous than, uh, Langston Hughes, and some of the other, uh, Harlem Renaissance writers, but I… I don’t know, I really like Claude McKay. But I- I don’t know. I really like Claude McKay. This poem’s called “If We Must Die” and it is a great American poem about the African American struggle for civil rights.
(Reads poem)
“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay.
Hank: Wonderful. Thanks, John.
John: I mean, I feel like that’s- That was a poem about death that wasn’t that depressing. Or, it is depressing but it’s- it’s- there’s something defiant about it that I like. I like poems that are defiant toward death and toward systemic injustice. I think that defiance is probably the right- the right response.
John: So yeah, I love that poem.
Hank: Well, thank you for sharing it with us.
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Click to read poem
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!
John Green Reads Poetry 