Bill Callahan, in his 2011 song “Drover”, croaks rustily, “One thing about this wild, wild country/ It takes a strong, strong, breaks a strong, strong mind…” but, swiftly, he replies, “And anything less, anything less/ makes me feel like I’m wasting my time.” The sentiment is certainly not new. Probably since its inception as a country, few have been able to widen their minds enough to contain America’s contradictions. Walt Whitman was an early example. Claude McKay, a black poet in the early 1900’s, writes along similar lines in “America”: “Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,/ And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, /Stealing my breath of life, I will confess/ I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!” All three bards have much in common, being of different backgrounds entirely. Let’s take a closer look at McCay’s sonnet.
Any poem entitled, “America”, is set up to be bold. Ok, this excludes new country music–a conservative, nationalistic dribble. McKay is setting up a deflation, and you can see it coming from the title. The first quatrain, however, ends on a high note to throw you off. However, it remains open what McKay means by “I love this cultured hell”. Is it meant to be scathing, playful, or wise? I think his love for America is a mental projection. It is a defiant sort of love, for his identity as a black individual and a keen understanding that his perspective is unique. It also seems to be a love for the struggle, the fast social darwinism of capitalism whose teeth cut down many, but sharpens those who can love themselves in the face of oppression. Ultimately the meaning is something McKay keeps deliberately to himself, a subjectivity we find in many of his poems–this rebelliousness clothed in high attire.
Any poem about America must hold many contradictions in one rain-barrel, and McKay seems to use the sonnet form to reign it in a bit. The first three quatrains really bottle up the energy, which is then released with the final couplet: “Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand,/ Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.” On a playful level, I believe McKay is toying with this power. He knows he has the life experience to say something this ominous towards a country that he actually loves. It’s as if he means to say, ‘I can say this.’ However, to the reader, the couplet is an apocalyptic bomb, prophesying America in ruins, a great empire, like Rome, gone to sand.