April is poetry month... We honor Claude McKay (1889 - 1949)

 Claude McKay was a Jamaica born poet who was an important figure during the Harlem Renaissance. McKay started writing poetry at the age of 10. He became a controversial figure on the political front. His famous poem, "If We Must Die," continues to attract attention, respect, and discussion... 

Please Read, enjoy, and think about what he is saying.

If We Must Die (published 1919)

BY CLAUDE MCKAY

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 accursèd 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!

For more understanding of the author and his work please take the time to listen to this rare live recording by Claude McKay reading his own work; plus, a round table discussion of the poem "If We Must Die?

Click here
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/4538http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/4538

This poem is recommended by teachers as supplement to classroom studies when featuring my novel, "Price Road." There are suggested lesson plans at the back of the book.
https://elainetjones.com

Claude McKay Awards 

Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences, gold medal, 1912, for two volumes of poetry, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads; 

Harmon Foundation Award for distinguished literary achievement, NAACP, 1929, for Harlem Shadows and Home to Harlem;
 James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild Award, 1937.

Works of Claude McKay

Songs of Jamaica (1912) 

Harlem Shadows (1922) 

Trial by Lynching: Stories About Negro Life in America (1925) 

Home to Harlem (1928)
 Banjo (1928) 

Gingertown (1932)
 Banana Bottom (1933) 

A Long Way From Home (1937)
 Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940)