If We Must Die
Caleb Acomb and Dani Bitar
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
IF WE MUST DIE
F.I.T. BY: DANI BITAR, CALEB ACOMB
CLAUDE MCKAY
WRITTEN IN THE 1920S
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 accursed lot.
Lines 1-4
PENNED IN
- If they must die, then not without dignity
- The dogs are the oppressors
- They surrounded the hogs, have yet to kill them
- Delaying suffering with words, to drag out malicious glee
If we must die—oh, 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!
Lines 5-8
HEROIC REASON
- Line 1 repeats with inflection
- Die not in vain, because all life is precious
- The dogs are now monsters
- Resist with such great force
Oh, 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?
Lines 9-12
SALLY FORTH!
- Kinsmen, all in relation
- The more, the merrier
- A single blow
- Only one way out
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Lines 13-14
REBOUND
- Like men
- Cornered, but going at it.
