did u know?

[evanovitch]

If we must die

Jamaican poet Claude Mackay wrote a poem in 1919 called, 'If we must die' in response to race riots across American cities.
It was a poem of such quality that it became an anthem of resistance everywhere.

Twenty years later British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used it as a rallying call to encourage troops in the second world war and to persuade the US to join the war.

<span style="font-weight: bold">But Prime Minister and his speech writers never attributed the words to Mackay.</span>


<span style="font-weight: bold">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!</span>

[St_Bess]

Re: did u know?

Yes, Vannie Churchill thief eh and never acknowlede Claude but I think you post this for discussion before. Here's my favorite Claude McKay's poem.

FLAME-HEART

So much have I forgotten in ten years,
So much in ten brief years! I have forgot
What time the purple apples come to juice,
And what month brings the shy forget-me-not.
I have forgot the special, startling season
Of the pimento's flowering and fruiting;
What time of year the ground doves brown the fields
And fill the noonday with their curious fluting.
I have forgotten much, but still remember
The poinsettia's red, blood-red in warm December.

I still recall the honey-fever grass,
But cannot recollect the high days when
We rooted them out of the ping-wing path
To stop the mad bees in the rabbit pen.
I often try to think in what sweet month
The languid painted ladies used to dapple
The yellow by-road mazing from the main,
Sweet with the golden threads of the rose-apple.
I have forgotten--strange--but quite remember
The poinsettia's red, blood-red in warm December.

What weeks, what months, what time of the mild year
We cheated school to have our fling at tops?
What days our wine-thrilled bodies pulsed with joy
Feasting upon blackberries in the copse?
Oh some I know! I have embalmed the days
Even the sacred moments when we played,
All innocent of passion, uncorrupt,
At noon and evening in the flame-heart's shade.
We were so happy, happy, I remember,
Beneath the poinsettia's red in warm December.

[blugiant]

Re: did u know?

yess mii knew. claude mckay iss wan aff mii favarate poet. churchill add fii use da blakk man wurd fii motivate iinglish peeps wen germans were drappinn lightninn ann tundar


fiyah pon dat jamaican ooman wey mii lend mii book add claude mckay poetry too ann shii neva return itt bout shii cyaan find itt. iff mii eva find ut wey yu move too mii cumminn fii search yu oouse