2.6–Sample Analysis of a Poem

Korku Mensah
Professor Cooper
ENGL 203
2 July 2021

“One Deathblow”: Claude McKay on Resisting Oppression

Claude McKay’s 1919 poem “If We Must Die” is a conventional Shakespearean sonnet that dwells on the themes of resistance, dignity, and violence. It is an incendiary call for the oppressed to resist oppression even if that means dying for such a cause. The poem does not speak overtly to any specific group of people but rather addresses all who are being or are susceptible to oppression of any kind. Admittedly, McKay’s personal experience with racial segregation as a black Jamaican in America in the early 1900s inspired this poem. Specifically, during the Red Summer in 1919 which saw anti-Black racist violence against black people across communities in the United States, especially in the South. McKay’s poem highlights a notable component of the Red Summer; when some black folks fought back in the spirit of resistance and honor. While the inspiration of this poem is central to the Harlem Renaissance, this essay reflects on the lived experiences of Blacks in the diaspora and how the call for the spirit of resistance in McKay’s early 1900 poem resurfaced as an ostensible inspiration in the 1950s, with key figures like James Baldwin and Franz Fanon in mind as they were confronted with racist oppressions in America and France respectively. The targeting of a universal audience of this poem explains its resurgence as an applicable inspiration in the works and experiences of oppressed people across the globe, especially people of African descent.

Can you find the sentence fragment in this introduction? How would you fix it?

The poem is essentially about how the oppressed should respond to oppression. McKay was a member of the oppressed group during the Red Summer and was personally affected by racial discrimination and increasing threats of lynching which led many African Americans to migrate from the South to the North of America during the Great Migration. More significantly, the poem is a call for McKay’s fellow oppressed people to courageously confront oppression rather than succumb to it. The poem registers McKay’s inclusion by the use of the pronouns “we”, “our”, and “us” in referring to the oppressed. The target audience of the poem are people who are not merely under oppression but are oppressed in ways that undermine their dignity as humans, literally pushed to the wall, being crushed, apparently robbed of their freedom, and hope dwindled. In this unfortunate circumstance, McKay admonishes that in the face of probable or inevitable death it is better to go down with a fight for what it is worth—dignity. This radical resistance approach is perhaps the assertion of the oppressed that their humanity must be put above their social identity. For example, in the experiences of Baldwin in the 1950s, he learned that “to be a Negro meant, precisely, that one was never looked at but was simply at the mercy of the reflexes the color of one’s skin caused in other people” (90). This echoes McKay’s inferable central point that the humanity of the oppressed is at stake in situations of oppression as was prevalent during the era of racial segregation in America.

The topic sentence here is very clear, but it is unclear what poetic devices will be examined in this paragraph. A paraphrase of the poem should be unnecessary after the introduction.

In the first quatrain of the poem, McKay acknowledges that in such a denigrating and hopeless situation—“an inglorious sport”, their lives as the oppressed group are certainly in danger, but if they must die it must not be as though they are some hounded animals or creatures whose lives don’t matter – “like hogs” (lines 1-2). In this situation, there is something other than life that is at stake; the dignity and humanity of the oppressed. As perhaps the poem’s argument, violent resistance is the most effective way to preserve the dignity, and affirm the humanity of the oppressed even if they die doing so. Furthermore, McKay points out that it is not only the oppressed whose humanity is at stake; equally threatened, denigrated even, is the humanity of the oppressor. In that regard, McKay metaphorically refers to the oppressors as “mad and hungry dogs” who will stop at nothing to completely crush the oppressed and reduce them to nothing as though that were their fate – their “accurséd lot” (3, 4).

Here the author begins to focus more closely on the poem, organizing the remaining paragraphs by stanza; while this works fine for an organizational logic, a conceptual organization could serve better. However, the line-by-line organization is perfectly functional. This entire quatrain is an extended metaphor, which the author recognizes implicitly but not explicitly. Why make the hunting of black people like hogs into an extended metaphor?

In the second quatrain, McKay establishes the value of the oppressed people and echoes their need to violently resist oppression in defense of their honor, dignity, and humanity. Still acknowledging the apparent inevitability of their destruction, McKay is more concerned about how the oppressed die. His fervent call to his fellow oppressed people to die “nobly” if they must, means not dying as petrified cowards (5); defying the objective of the oppressor to reduce them to the status of dispirited souls, thus stripping them of their humanity. The point of course is already made that in oppression both the oppressed and the oppressor are dehumanized. McKay is emphatic in his reference to the oppressors as “monsters” (7). The question here is, would the oppressed rather die like hapless “hogs” shedding “in vain” their “precious blood” or like men and women of valor who defy the fear of the imminent death that sneers at them to fight for their honor (6,7)? Covertly, McKay is asking his fellow oppressed people what they would want to be remembered for; because their choices will go a long way to define them and those who will come after them.

This paragraph excellently analyzes the word choices of this quatrain; could a consideration of meter or rhyme enhance this discussion?

In the third quatrain, McKay stresses the universality of the poem by his choice of words like “kinsmen” in reference to his fellow oppressed people everywhere, and “common foe” in allusion to oppressors of all kinds (9). Again, McKay re-emphasizes the need to vehemently fight back at oppression – the spirit of resistance. The stark truth is, to defiantly fight back, or to succumb are the only alternatives available to the oppressed while the choice of whether the oppressed live or die is utterly up to the oppressor. However, the oppressed could decide how they die. It is important to understand that the concept of death varies across cultures. In the context of this poem, to die a death of valor is to die with honor and dignity; an opportunity to exhibit and entrench one’s freedom from oppression, even in death. Furthermore, McKay’s choice of words such as “far outnumbered” suggests that the oppressed group belongs to the minority in society as tends to be the case with being Black in an anti-Black racist white supremacy society (10). In a do-or-die situation as the oppressed may be in, McKay emphatically suggests that violent resistance becomes the only way for the oppressed to safeguard their humanity and dignity. For example, like Fanon, in his experiences with racist oppression in the 1950s, says “if the white man challenges my humanity, I will impose my whole weight as a man on his life and show him that I am not that ‘sho’ good eatin’ that he persists in imagining” (178). Likewise, McKay suggests that in response to the oppressor’s constant dehumanization and denigration—their “thousand blows”, all the oppressed need to do is to perform a violent resistance—“one death blow” (11). Even though this violent resistance means an automatic death row, it is worth it because, in whatever case, before the oppressed “lies the open grave”—destruction (12).

An absent comma has created a misplaced modifier. Can you find it?

In the concluding two lines of the sonnet, McKay intimates that since it appears that the humanity of the oppressed is subject to the acknowledgment of the oppressor, violent resistance is the only way the oppressed can daringly uphold their humanity; thus compelling the oppressor to acknowledge their humanity. McKay marshals the strength of the oppressed “like men” to brave out the real cowards—the oppressor, and gives the final call for the oppressed to fight valiantly. Pertinently when McKay says “if we must die,” he acknowledges the power of the oppressor—perhaps because the oppressor is the majority and has the arsenal to oppress (13). So, to resist the oppression may require the ultimate sacrifice—death.

A conclusion ought to begin with a re-statement of the thesis, not with the introduction of more material to be analyzed.

Works Cited

Overall, this is an effective close reading of McKay’s sonnet that provides a strong, emphatic claim. The author has paid careful attention to the connotations and denotations of words, and has, for the most part, avoided extraneous materials that might detract from the content of the poem itself. The argument carries with it, like the poem itself, a weight of righteous force. However, the organization and use of poetic terms could be improved here. This essay is organized in mixed fashion: it begins conceptually before settling on a stanza-by-stanza organization. The author might consider organizing around the technical and poetic terms, or around concepts and themes.