In “The White City”, Claude McKay describes his feelings for the city in which he resides. It is important to remember that this sonnet was written during the Harlem Renaissance, when there was an outpouring of African American literature as well as demand for fair and equal social stature in the country. As a black Jamaican, Claude undoubtedly witnessed end experienced firsthand the yoke of oppression placed on blacks in the United States. In the first quatrain of the sonnet, McKay talks about his hatred against the city and those who enforce it within its boundaries. However, he also states that he is powerless to express his feelings and take action against the injustice he witnesses, saying that he must keep his hate, “Deep in the secret chambers of my heart.” In the second quatrain, he continues to expand the feelings of his hate, saying that he, “would be a skeleton” without it, and that it provides him with energy that he needs to survive in the white man’s world. Both the first and second quatrains help to establish the poet’s emotions and gauge the depths of his rage against the white city and its rulers. However, the third quatrain stands in sharp contrast with the previous two, as McKay goes on to describe the aesthetic qualities of the city. His use of imagery such as the “towers vapor-kissed”, create in the reader a false sense of contentment, as they are put momentarily at ease due to the change of tone in the poem. Yet in the couplet at the end, McKay brings his point full circle, saying in the last line, “Are sweet like wanton loves because I hate.” Though he sees the beauty of the city, he hates it because he can also see the oppression and racism smoldering beneath the seemingly serene surface. Due to this fact the city is not beautiful to him at all, and instead just serves as a symbol of oppression.