If We Must Die Quizzes

If We Must Die Quiz

1 In what year did McKay write "If We Must Die"?
1919

1921

1918

1917
2 What is most important to the speaker?
Honor

Survival

Victory

Personal fame
3 What kind of sonnet is "If We Must Die"?
Shakespearean sonnet

Petrarchan sonnet

Victorian sonnet

Spenserian sonnet
4 How does the speaker first characterize his enemy?
Like men

Like dogs

Like monsters

Like wolves
5 How many times is the line "If We Must Die" repeated in the poem?
3 times

2 times

Never

Once
6 What "inglorious" animal does the speaker urge his allies not to imitate?
Rats

Cats

Cattle

Hogs
7 Which of the following kinds of words are NOT used in the poem?
Colors

Animal words

Numbers

Archaic words
8 What image from the poem's final line conveys the allies' dire situation?
Being surrounded

Being pinned down

Being pressed to the wall

Being penned in
9 What word does the speaker use to directly address his compatriots?
Brothers

Fellow men

Kinsmen

Allies
10 What famous historical figure reportedly read the poem to the public during World War II?
Langston Hughes

Winston Churchill

Franklin D. Roosevelt

General Douglas MacArthur
11 If the speaker fights honorably, what will the "monsters" be forced to do?
Honor him

Forgive him

Let him live

Bury him
12 What phrase in the poem potentially refers to Christ?
Thousand blows

Accursèd lot

Open grave

Precious blood
13 What events inspired the poem's composition?
McKay's trip to Russia

World War I

Woodrow Wilson's presidency

The Red Summer
14 What does the speaker say the enemy will do if his allies surrender?
Honor him

Congratulate him

Pardon him

Mock him
15 What figure of speech is "O, kinsmen!"?
Acrostic

Aphorism

Anaphora

Apostrophe
16 How does the speaker handle the possibility of death?
He refuses to believe it

He fears it

He willing submits to it

He stands firm in the face of it
17 In what magazine was the poem originally published?
The Atlantic

The Crisis

The Messenger

The Liberator
18 What vowel sound is repeated throughout the second and third quatrains?
U

I

E

O
19 How does the speaker suggest they should die?
Nobly

Quickly

Willingly

Reluctantly
20 What is the poem's attitude towards combat?
A disavowal in favor of non-violent protest

A realistic sense of guerrilla warface

A modernist sense of chaos and futility

Classical notions of heroic conflict
21 What kind of words drop out at the end of the poem?
Words related to death

Conditional words like "if"

Words related to gender

Animal words like "pack"
22 What does the speaker mean when he says "before us lies the open grave"?
They will dig graves

They will certainly die

They might die

They will kill the enemy
23 What makes "If We Must Die" different from a typical sonnet?
It is uses romanticized ideals

It is has a final rhyming couplet

It does not use the singular "I"

It uses comparisons to animals
24 What sound is repeated many times in the second line of the poem?
P sounds

N sounds

T sounds

M sounds
25 What ratio does the speaker use to give a sense of how outnumbered they are?
100:1

10000:1

1000:1

10:1