Discuss the sonnet format of the "Outcast" by Claude McKay.

Claude McKay was born in Jamaica and came to America to
study.  Throughout McKay early years in America, he struggled to find a place for
himself.  This is the subject of his English sonnet
“Outcast.”

McKay wrote that he chose the
format of the sonnet to write about his strong feelings
because he felt that this style of poem was best suited to his emotions. The poet is the
narrator of the poem which does follow the sonnet format. It has fourteen lines which
are broken down into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. Each of the quatrains has a
specific purpose in leading toward the actual theme of the
poem.

In the initial quatrain, the narrator speaks of his
African heritage. Spiritually, he wonders what it would be like to go to the dark region
of Africa.  His ancestors came from there in bondage.  He will never understand their
words nor speak their language but he yearns to.  If he were able, he would sing the now
forgotten jungle songs.

The second quatrain speaks to the
desire to go back to Africa and the peace and serenity of the dark continent. But
American and the western world holds him there. He feels that he held in captivity by
the "western world" [fee:  a. law  (of land) in absolute ownership
(Collins Dictionary)].

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I would go back to darkness and to
peace,

But the great western world holds me in
fee,

And I may never hope for full
release

While to its alien gods I bend my
knee.

He may never find
release from this alien world to which he is enslaved.  Unfortunately, he feels he will
never be free and must always be subordinate to the white man. As long as he kowtows to
the white man, he will never find his place or be free.

In
the third quatrain, the poet states that he has lost a part of himself forever. He has
lost something inside his inner being. He feels he given up his spiritual freedom that
he wants so much. Because of his loss, he feels separated and without substance like a
ghostly being as he walks among the men of the earth. He feels as though he is alone and
outcast.

His birth was far away from the white world of
America which is a threatening environment. He wishes to have been born in a different
time. The racism McKay faced in his new country was more violent than that of his early
years in Jamaica. His allegiance was to America because he became an American citizen. 
However, his blackness and birth place also pulled at his heart strings. When he first
came, McKay attended school in Alabama  and discovered racism for the first time. He
later changed to Kansas State in hopes that he would be better received.  He was happier
there,  but he also found some racism there as well. 

In
1916, McKay wrote to a publisher about his life and poetry.  He emphasized that he had
could not believe the hatred that he often felt in regions of America.  His feelings
were so indescribable that he had to put them down in poetry.  This is the origin of the
sonnet “Outcast.”