If we must die, let it not be like hogs <br />Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, <br />While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, <br />Making their mock at our accursèd lot. <br />If we must die, O let us nobly die, <br />So that our precious blood may not be shed <br />In vain; then even the monsters we defy <br />Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! <br />O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! <br />Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, <br />And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow! <br />What though before us lies the open grave? <br />Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, <br />Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!<br /><br />Claude McKay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-we-must-die/
