Claude+McKay

__**C **__l au de __**M **__c Ka y Picture is from: [] "__**I **__f __**W **__e __**M **__ust __**D **__ie" 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. 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 deathblow! 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!

Poem is from:  [|http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/mckay.html] <span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(198, 0, 255); font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; text-align: center;">__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">H **__istory __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a **__nd __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">B **__iographical __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">R **__eference <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Claude McKay was born on September 15, 1889, in Jamaica. He was the youngest of eleven children. His fathers name was Francis McKay and his mother’s name was Ann Elizabeth Edwards. Claude McKay’s father was a narrator of African tales that were passed down from generations (Douglas 198). He lived with his parents until he was six years old and then stayed with his older brother who was a schoolteacher and a preacher for the Anglican Church. McKay’s brother made a great impact on his childhood and persuaded him to read writings by Huxley, Lecky, and Gibbon. McKay later met Walter Jekyll who widened McKay’s interest in writing by introducing him to some of the major English and American poets. McKay came to the United Stares in 1912 and studied for a short time at Tuskegee Institute. In 1917 he published poems like “The Harlem Dancer” and “invocation.” Claude McKay returned to New York in 1921. Claude McKay was a communist, so he traveled to Russia to meet Lenin and Trotsky. Like any other African American, Claude McKay was constantly stressed with the unfair treatment towards African Americans. Before he returned to the United States he became very physically ill and traveled to Europe and Africa. Claude published “Home to Harlem” in 1928 and received the Harlem Gold Award (Emanuel 85-87). <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Claude McKay wrote many poems during his lifetime, but one of his most famous poems was titled “If We Must Die” in 1919. In “If We Must Die” McKay uses rhymes, and metaphors to personify the poem. McKay is writing here about lynching, in particular the riots in Harlem in 1919. Claude McKay died on May 22, 1948 in Chicago Illinois of heart failure. Picture from: [] <span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(198, 0, 255); font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center;">__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">C **__laude __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">M **__cKay’s __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">E **__ffect __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">o **__n __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">t **__he __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">H **__arlem __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">R **__enaissance <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: Helvetica;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Claude McKay was first recognized as a writer in the United States when his volume of poems entitled “Songs of Jamaica” was published in 1912 when he arrived in America. Claude McKay is regarded as one of the first significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He attended Tuskegee Institute and Kansas State University, then traveled to New York and participated in the literary movements there, both in Harlem and in Greenwich Village. His sonnet, "If We Must Die," is one of his popular poems that brought fame to his name. His book of poems, “Harlem Shadows”//,// was a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance and contained seventy-four poems. Claude McKay was the first author from Harlem to have a novel reach the bestseller list. “Home to Harlem” was the name of this well-known novel. Being one of the first significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Claude McKay was able to form a path for others to follow behind him. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Claude McKay's viewpoints and poetic achievements in the earlier part of the twentieth century set the tone for the Harlem Renaissance  <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. Younger black poets, such as Langston Hughes, gained a tremendous amount of respect for McKay’s way of thinking. When McKay arrived in America, he fell into a society that was violently racist. This led to him writing the collection of poetry he called “Harlem Shadows”. With its publication in 1922, “Harlem Shadows” was the first work that was printed and race was not an issue in the publishing industry. The poems introduced an attitude of anger and spite towards racial prejudice in America. When excerpts of “Harlem Shadows” appeared in journals, the poems inspired African American writers. “Harlem Shadows,” became a founding text of the Harlem Renaissance <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. <span style="display: block; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Picture from: [] <span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(198, 0, 255); font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; text-align: center;">__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">E **__xplanation __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">o **__f “__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I **__f __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">W **__e __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">M **__ust __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">D **__ie” __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b **__y __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">C **__laude __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">M **__cKay <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Claude McKay wrote many fine poems; however one important poem he wrote was “If We Must Die”. McKay wrote this poem as a response to the Harlem race riots in 1919 and also the release of this poem seems to mirror Winston Churchill’s call for support to fight the Nazis (Moore). . McKay opens the poem saying “ If we must die, let it not be like hogs” relating to the whites attack on the blacks during these race riots, and McKay is making the conscience choice to evoke animal imagery because, in his mind, blacks have become animals (Moore). Although his message and theme is not so conventional, the techniques used to structure this poem are. McKay uses end rhyme (ababcdcdefefgg), simile, onomatopoeia, and metaphor in his poem to express his angst and capture the reader’s attention. McKay also uses the structure of a classic Shakespearean sonnet in writing this poem (Nelson). McKay is quoted as saying “ Our Negro newspapers were morbid, full of details of clashes between colored and white, murderous shootings and hangings” in an interview; the only question that remained for him was how could he express this in words for everyone to understand? (New York Times). In the New York Times interview McKay explained the idea for “If We Must Die” by saying “It was during those days that the sonnet, "If We Must Die," exploded out of me. And for it the Negro people unanimously hailed me as a poet”. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Throughout the Harlem Renaissance, Claude McKay was a huge part of the movement; “If We Must Die” was on of the first poems written dedicated to the cause and remains a symbol for the era. media type="youtube" key="zVOiwDsqgOY" height="344" width="425"<span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(198, 0, 255); font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; text-align: center;">__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">W **__orks **__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">C __**ited <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Claude McKay Biography." __Famous Poets and Poems - Read and Enjoy Poetry__. 01 Mar. 2009 <http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/claude_mckay/biography>. "Claude McKay." Ed. Cary Nelson. 2000. Oxford United Press. 01 Mar. 2009 <http://www2.english.uiuc.edu/finnegan/English%20251/claude_mckay.htm>. "Harlem Shadows." __Poets' Corner - Bookshelf__. Ed. Nelson Miller. May 1999. Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1 Mar. 2009 <http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/mckay00.html>. "Harlem 1900-1940: Schomburg Exhibit Claude McKay." __School of Information - University of Michigan: The iSchool at Michigan__. 01 Mar. 2009 <http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/text/mckay.html>. "The Harlem Renaissance Poets and Musicians." __TimBookTu - Stories, Poetry and Essays with an African-American Flavor__. 01 Mar. 2009 <http://www.timbooktu.com/spence/harlem.htm>. "Explication of Claude McKay's Poem If We Must Die." Moore, Julie. 26 Nov. 2007. [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//A Long Way Home//. [1937]. New York: Arno-New York Times, 1969. [] Douglas, Kenneth and Jean Wagner. __Black Poets of the United States__. University of Illinois Press, 1973. Emanuel, James A. and Theodore Gross. __Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America__. Simon and Schuster, 1968. McKay on "If We Must Die” Claude McKay. “New Negro, Old Left” (New York: Columbia <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">University Press, 1999). <http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/mckay/mustdie.htm>