In the poem “The White City”(ANTH 503), Claude McKay uses contrast imagery and the sonnet form to express his steadfast hatred of the white man and segregation, as well as emphasizing his love of the city itself despite its associations with this overwhelming “whiteness.” The sonnet form, as we have seen with earlier Claude McKay poems, seems to be used in an ironic or sarcastic sense, expressing the speaker as someone versed in the more classic intellectual forms of poetry. McKay was, in fact, well-acquainted with such forms, despite his poor background and the stereotypes of his race. He implements this form of the Shakespearean sonnet to provide contrast between what is shown on the outside and what is true on the inside, as he does throughout his poem. Most people expect a sonnet to be about love, but instead McKay uses it to express his “life-long hate” (line 3) and “dark Passion” (6) in contrast with the city around him. Throughout, McKay uses the contrasting colors of black and white to display both his hatred and the illusory nature of the white world. 
The speaker’s hatred is constantly expressed as something powerful and unfaltering, as well as something that must be hidden from view, “Deep in the secret chambers of [his] heart” (2). The speaker takes strength from his hatred, a passion that “forever [feeds him] vital blood” (8), stating that he will not “bend an inch” (1) under the forces that attempt to oppress him. However, he hides this hatred from the outside world, once again expressing the contrast between the things we see on the outside and what we feel on the inside. Everything in the poem is hidden by something; the speaker’s hate is hidden inside his mind and heart, the “dark Passion” fills and is hidden within the “shell” of the previous line, and the city is shrouded by mist. Secrecy and illusion seems to cover the darkness within both the city and the speaker, hiding it beneath a veil of white.
The constant element of juxtaposition in the poem plays an even greater role in the imagery surrounding the city itself, contrasting the white mist with the speaker’s passion, heaven with hell, light with darkness, and noble love with secretive hate. Despite the fact that the mist, which covers every inch of the city in a blanket of whiteness, attempts even to engulf the speaker and his “heaven” (7), he resists it and “bear[s] it nobly” (4) by pretending to be content and inhabiting the disguise, covering his own self in “whiteness” and forever gratified by the passion that helps him survive, either the “heaven” found within in the confines of Harlem, or his sense of personal pride and power.
Britteny, you make a great point concerning McKay’s”hidden” agenda. McKay seems to revel in packing meaning and word connotation into something like an onion. By layering word usage, powerful imagery, symbolism, and slang into a Shakespearean sonnet, McKay not only masters the expression of his emotion, he also unravels it for his readers to experience with him. Perhaps the reason he created such complicated juxtapositions in his poetry was to fully express the complexity of his isolation, but also to steam roll the sales of his books of poetry. If we think about it, we follow, discuss, and explore things that often shock us and disagree with our morals or behaviors, much in the same way McKay’s books of poetry would sell if only for the fact that the readers could outwardly disagree with him.
The point I would disagree with pertains to McKay’s “pretending to be content and inhabiting the disguise” because I consider the way McKay “live[s] his part” is by participating in society both within the boundaries that confine his racially and by expanding his horizons due to his excellence. Furthermore, McKay’s “Passion” is fueled by white inventions such as “towers vapor-kissed” with clouds that are monuments proving the success of man over nature. These are things not invented by African Americans, therefore he pushed himself to out-perform those other white conventions arguing that “wanton loves” are more powerful motivators than marvels accomplished by societal allowance. McKay alludes to his Romantic ties as he subtlety recalls a time in which even white men were fueled by “vital blood” to revolt against an English rule.