"kinsmen") to emphasize how incorrect this assumption is: though the whites may behave like "mad and hungry dogs," it is only because of their madness that they cannot see how "precious" is the blood of those they oppress.

There are several literary devices in the poem, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay.  The first and most powerful is the simile he uses in the very first line of the poem.  McKay pleads to his black readers to not give up and become imprisoned like hogs hunted by a pack of mad dogs.  He says that if we are going to die, let it be for a cause and not like an animal that didn’t defy or fight back against the monsters that hurt and kill them. Here McKay is comparing whites to monsters (a metaphor) that have outnumbered the blacks causing years of brutality and death.  He further develops the idea of whites being animalistic like dogs when he calls them a “murderous, cowardly pack” connecting this metaphor to the original hungry dogs circling and entrapping the pig. 

McKay’s powerful message is that you must fight back against those who oppress you.  In this context, he is talking about fighting against those who lack the humanity to treat others fairly.  McKay makes the point that even “if we must die”, at least die fighting back. 

It’s important to note that this poem is written in sonnet form with 14 lines, a very formal style of writing.  This formal style suggests that McKay was not only writing to his fellow black Americans to fight back, but that he was perhaps sending a message to whites that the time of submission is over.

In the first line of the poem there is a simile when the speaker declares, "If we must die, let it not be like hogs." The "we" here refers to African Americans, who, at this time (1919), were facing violent, racist persecution. In the aforementioned simile, the speaker implies that African Americans should not have to die like animals.

Throughout the poem, the speaker repeatedly uses collective pronouns such as "we," "us," and "our." This creates a sense of unity among the African Americans he is addressing, and also suggests that they have strength in numbers. The poet is implying that if they fight together, they can impose their will.

In the third line the speaker uses a metaphor to describe the racists as "mad and hungry dogs." In this metaphor, the speaker is suggesting that although African Americans are being hunted like animals, it is in fact the hunters who are animalistic. It is the hunters who are inhumane, and irrational, like rabid dogs.

In the middle of the poem, and also twice toward the end, the speaker uses exclamatory sentences. He declares, for example, that African Americans "must meet the common foe!" The repetition of exclamatory sentences suggests the speaker's rising anger and defiance.

In the twelfth line the speaker uses a rhetorical question, when he asks his fellow African Americans, "What though before us lies the open grave?" Here the speaker is saying that African Americans might as well die bravely, and die fighting, since their fate is to meet with "the open grave" whether they do so or not. The rhetorical question suggests that the choice, to die fighting, is obvious.

In the final two lines there is a rhyming couplet ("pack ... back!"). This rhyming couplet evokes a climactic tone, and also creates a sense of closure. The climactic tone is appropriate given that the speaker is calling upon his fellow African Americans to fight back, and the sense of closure is also fitting because the speaker has decided that no more should African Americans simply accept racist persecution as their lot.