The sonnet through time: 'If we must die', Claude McKay

In this lesson, we will meet the poem 'If We Must Die' for the first time. We will explore our first impressions of this powerful writing from the poet Claude McKay and learn more about what it means to study poetry.

In this lesson, we will continue our exploration of 'If We Must Die'. We are going to travel to 1920s and 1930s America to learn about the Harlem Renaissance. We will also find out about some of the regrettable context which inspired the poet Claude McKay.

In our third lesson on the poem 'If We Must Die', we will return to the poem again to explore the powerful images created by McKay. We will look closely at the words and sounds of the poem to consider how McKay paints a vivid scene and inspires a call to action.

In our fourth lesson on the poem 'If We Must Die', we will look at the sonnet form and see what Claude McKay has in common with William Shakespeare. We will look at how McKay uses and plays with a tradition of poetry which stretches back over 800 years.

In our final lesson on the poem 'If We Must Die', we will bring together everything we have learnt to produce an essay in response to the poem. We will try to answer the question: 'How does McKay challenge oppression in his poem 'If We Must Die'?