America

The poem is a sonnet, a traditional lyric verse form consisting of 14 lines. Sonnets usually fall into one of two categories: the Petrarchan sonnet, after the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch; or the English or Shakespearean sonnet. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into an octave (eight lines), which presents a problem or question of some kind, and a sestet (six lines), in which the situation is resolved. This type of sonnet has a distinctive rhyme scheme. McKay’s “America,” however, more closely follows the English sonnet form, which is divided into three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet that presents an epigrammatic conclusion. The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is ABAB BCBC CDCD EE, and McKay follows. This means that Line 1 rhymes with Line 3, and Line 2 rhymes with Line 4 in each quatrain; Lines 13 and 14 rhyme to form a concluding couplet.

Like traditional English sonnets, this sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. An iambic pentameter consists of five iambic feet. An iamb consists of two syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Line 13 provides one of many examples: “Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand.” As is common in poems written in iambic pentameter, the poet makes a number of what are called substitutions, in which he varies the iambic rhythm. Such substitutions often appear in the first poetic foot, as is the case in this sonnet. For example, Line 3 begins not with an iamb but with a trochee. A trochee is the opposite of an iamb, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, thus: “Stealing my breath of life,” which places more emphasis on the word “stealing” than might otherwise be the case, since the first syllable stands out against the expected metrical base. Line 11 also begins with a trochee, “Darkly,” which emphasizes the beginning of the fatalistic conclusion.