The poem America by Claude McKay is a regular sonnet. It contains three quatrains and one couplet at the end. McKay does not break the normal sonnet format, which might contribute to the actual poem. McKay might have chose to follow the sonnet format to show America has order and structure. The only thing different about the format is the last two lines (the couplet) are not indented. Usually the couplet on a sonnet is indented a little bit to show the end of the poem. A possible reason McKay did not choose to do include the indent was to show America as one whole unit or unseparated.

The rhyme scheme of this poem is as follows: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The rhyme pattern of this poem is similar to other sonnets. The rhyme scheme allows the reader to flow through the poem without hesitation. Another poetic tool McKay uses is personification. McKay personifies America as a woman and refers to America as "she" or "her" throughout the poem. This personification shows America's importance to the speaker.

McKay also personifies America by having the speaker refer to her "tiger's tooth." By saying America has a tiger's tooth, the speaker show is showing America's strength and power. A tiger's tooth can rip any piece of meat to shreds, and by giving America that characteristic, McKay is therefore revealing America's strength.

In my opinion, the most interesting part of the poem is when the speaker refers to America as a "cultured hell." This seems ironic because the two words could be considered opposites. Cultured often has positive connotations and means to be well educated, while hell on the other hand has a negative connotation. The image of hell is often scary and not wanted. America, then, is both a positive place and a negative place, according to McKay.