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 accurséd 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!
by Claude McKay
"If we must die" takes liberties with iambic pentameter, but they are slight. Look at the 2nd line--that's in 3, really. (musical shortcut, like 3/4 time instead of 2/4, which is iambic pentameter,...sorta. I wanna teach a poetry class to musicians!) The 4th line does that too, so there is consistency in the pattern. Likewise, the next to last line is more than 10 syllables--depending on how you say them. It's straight iambic pentameter then. Notice that the last line messes up the rhythm, too, for effect. Emphasizing dying and fighting back, so the rhythm emphasizes the meaning--which should be what rhythm does.
His tone is strong, defiant--rythym and word choice work together to create that.
The language in this is interesting, too--notice the juxtaposition between the "dying like hogs"--very common, degrading, coarse image, and the exalted imagery and language--"the monsters we defy," "nobly die" constrained, kinsmen, foe--words used very sincerely to paint an image of heroism to counter the "dying like hogs."
When talking about poetry, the speaker and the tone are important. For analysis purposes, the speaker is not the poet personally, even if it's first person. Obviously, sometimes there's an excpetion to this.
Ok--you probably saw all that and knew all that and wonder if that's all there is to talking about poetry. Yes. Throw in a couple allusions to T S Eliot or Ezra Pound and you've got a PhD! I'm just warming up!
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14 years ago
2 comments:
The sentence wrapping loses it for me. Im still figuring out the rhythm thing but i feel like the author is stuttering when i read it. Well really just 2 lines. from 6th to 8th. i like the idea but the chivalry seems cliched to me? But i think limericks are cool...
But didn't the Whitman that you like have sentence wrapping (which isn't the technical term in poetry, but I'm going to have to look it up)? Nope, it didn't--sort of. In the Whitman, each line ended a phrase even if the complete sentence didn't end.
That's interesting. I'm going to have to watch that more. As to the idea that it's cliched--possibly, but I wonder if your interests and background play into seeing the point as cliched? It's a strong, clear statement of defiance even when the cost will be high; that's right up your alley. The rallying cry aspect of this appeals to some people who don't have the context that you do, from what I've seen.
This poem has been the basis of interesting discussions in my classes--that's probably why I don't tend to think of it as formulaic.
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