IfWeMust...

"If We Must Die" is a poem that makes me a poet among colored Americans

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—oh, 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!

Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;

Though far outnumberеd, let us show us brave

And for their thousand blows dеal 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!