USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Dogs. While the oppressed people the poem addresses are like “hogs, ” then the people who harass them are “dogs.” Here, the speaker uses the dogs as a symbol for mob violence: these metaphorical dogs come in “packs”; they are “mad and hungry”; they both mock and attack.

Detailed explanation-2: -Summary. ‘If We Must Die’ by Claude McKay is a rousing poem addressed to the black community advocating for courage and the will to fight back against oppression. The poem begins with the speaker addressing his “kinsmen, ” telling them they need to avoid the fate of hogs.

Detailed explanation-3: -Lines 1 through 4 establish that the speaker and his allies are under attack. The speaker urges his allies not to give up without a fight. The next four lines draw on the emotions of the allies to die honorably. Lines 9 through 12 contain the speaker’s rallying cry to his allies.

Detailed explanation-4: -we must meet the common foe! The speaker uses that old-fashioned “O” again. (Kind of starting to sound like Shakespeare, right?) The speaker’s “kinsmen” are his buddies; they are like family to the speaker. This may be because they are fighting against the same “foe, ” or enemy.