During research on Claude McKay, I found one article to be extremely helpful in understanding McKay’s poetic choice to utilize the sonnet in order to reveal his multi-dimensional emotions regarding racial violence in America. Throughout the sonnet, McKay establishes a “hybrid point of view – a double-consciousness,” (102) a term formed first by W.E.B DuBois. This term details the double sided nature of McKay’s vision and how he situates himself as an African American male with complete awareness of America’s prejudiced nature and how traumatic these experiences come to be.
Through my research on McKay’s connectedness to the original Shakespearean sonnet, I found that a difference between the typical Shakespearean sonnet and McKay’s is that McKay’s sonnets are more inspired by personal experiences that he felt ardently about, as opposed to the Shakespearean sonnet that strays away from specificity and focuses on the private experience (101). Unlike the typical sonnet that sets forth with a problem or call the action and ends with more or less of a solution, McKay’s sonnets do not seem to resolve themselves in the conclusion, and leave the feeling consistent throughout.
One similarity is that both the Shakespearean sonnet and McKay’s’ sonnets both share impressive tone that are detailed as “conversational, personal, often intensely passionate, qualities that can kindle a spark in even a poetry-resistant tenth-grader’s heart” (100).
It seems as though the sonnet is a fitting verse for McKay to channel his expression. I believe that both his works read for today, “America” and “The White City” harbor this hatred and it is clear that the poetic speaker would not dare vocalize these thoughts, aside from within the poem.
My favorite of these two poems was “America.” From my interpretation, I read “America” to be a poem about the struggle of coping with a reality that is 100% different than hopeful expectations. To say the least, McKay isn’t feeling to crazy about America – and that is clearly expressed with aggressive vocabulary with words that carry such weight such as “hate,” “bitterness,” and “hell.” This sonnet concludes with no concrete solutions and that there is no certainty in the America in which he lives.
Great point about McKay subverting the typical argumentative structure of the traditional sonnet in which the octave presents and the sestet resolves. As for McKay’s chosen content, I’m not quite clear on the distinction you make between “personal” and “private” expression. Can you elaborate? As the sonnet evolved over time, authors have expanded its register to approach issues of politics and identity in addition to traditional themes of love found and lost.
I’m glad you mentioned DuBois’ “double consciousness,” which I find to be another huge part of McKay’s use of the sonnet form. I feel that it mirrors that feeling of constraint that black people were experiencing during the Harlem Renaissance. The sonnet form is so strict and unnatural, imitating the “elevated” white culture of the time that some blacks felt the need to assimilate into. McKay was not one of these. He felt that black culture was beautiful in itself and did not need to change to fit white culture. By using the sonnet form, McKay demonstrates not only his ability to imitate that strict form, but also his ability to change them to fit his own message.