Unlike Hughes’ free and straightforward poetic form, Claude McKay’s writing style comes across as restricted and stiff. In his poems, “If We Must Die” and “The White City,” McKay almost perfectly adheres to the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. His need to mimic the meter and rhyme scheme of this sonnet bounds him and his poetry to a pre-set paradigm, emphasizing the fact that he, and other African Americans felt as though they were being confined by the limitations and restrictions imposed on them because of their skin color. According to American poet and award-winning teacher, Donna Denizé and senior consultant of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Louisa Newlin, McKay chose to follow the form of a Shakespearean sonnet because it was “best
