The poem is a sonnet, a traditional lyric verse form consisting of 14 lines. Sonnets usually fall into one of two categories: the Petrarchan sonnet, after the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch; or the English or Shakespearean sonnet. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into an octave (eight lines), which presents a problem or question of some kind, and a sestet (six lines), in which the situation is resolved. This type of sonnet has a distinctive rhyme scheme. McKay’s “America,” however, more closely follows the English sonnet form, which is divided into three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet that presents an epigrammatic conclusion. The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is ABAB BCBC CDCD EE, and McKay follows. This means that Line 1 rhymes with Line 3, and Line 2 rhymes with Line 4 in each quatrain; Lines 13 and 14 rhyme to form a concluding couplet.

Like traditional English sonnets, this sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. An iambic pentameter consists of five iambic feet. An iamb consists of two syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.