1988
If We Must Die
Composed by 
Robert Owens
Robert Owens Text by 
Claude McKay
Claude McKay 3 Songs, Op.41 (Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano) Song Collection
"If We Must Die" is the second song in Robert Owens's song cycle 3 Songs, Op.41 (Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano).
Listen
“If We Must Die” (from “3 Songs, Op.41 (Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano)”)
Donnie Ray Albert, baritone; Marvin Mills, piano2:51
Text
If We Must Die
by Claude McKay
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 outnumbered, let us still be brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
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!
Sheet Music
3 songs for Baritone and Piano, Op. 41
Robert Owens
The Lynching, If We Must Die, To the White Fiends
Baritone