If We Must Die Summary

The poem presents a situation where the speaker and his "kinsmen" are going to die and are thus faced with a choice of how they will die. In the first quatrain the speaker urges his kinsmen not to yield to their demonic enemy in an "inglorious" death. The second quatrain encourages them to earn a noble death by resisting, which will force even their spiteful enemy to acknowledge their worth. The third quatrain acknowledges the state of being outnumbered—and the grim reality of their impending death—and more forcefully calls on the allies to show their bravery through combat. Finally, the concluding couplet claims that the allies will face their enemies bravely even as they are about to perish.