USA HISTORY

THE ROARING 20S 1920 1929

ART AND CULTURE OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
What is the poem, “If We Must Die” mostly about?
A
how war is sometimes unavoidable
B
how men should fight back courageously to die honorably
C
how difficult it is to fight when you are outnumbered by the enemy
D
how a group of noble men can always defeat a vicious enemy
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -“If We Must Die” is a Shakespearean sonnet written by the Jamaican poet Claude McKay in 1919. It is a poem of political resistance: it calls for oppressed people to resist their oppressors, violently and bravely-even if they die in the struggle.

Detailed explanation-2: -In the context of this mass white-supremacist violence against Black communities, Jamaican-born poet and novelist Claude McKay (1889-1948) wrote the sonnet “If We Must Die.” The poem was first published in the July 1919 issue of The Liberator, a monthly socialist magazine, when McKay was nearly thirty years old.

Detailed explanation-3: -The tone of “If We Must Die” conveys inspiration, while the tone of “Harlem” is frustration which indicates the difference between the poets’ attitudes toward racial oppression. In the first eight lines of “If We Must Die”, the speaker insists on dying nobly.

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