The poem begins with quotation marks, indicating that the speaker is actually speaking aloud in this moment. Of course, the context of the poem isn't clear yet, but it's still worth noting that the speaker seems to be delivering some kind of speech or public rant—a fact that affects the way readers approach the poem.
The speaker announces a deep love of America, one that is only rivaled by the speaker's love of God. As a way of demonstrating this love, the speaker waxes patriotically about how the country is the "land of the pilgrims," alluding and paying tribute to the nation's history in a way that sounds respectful and moving while also quoting a line from the patriotic song "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)."
However, the speaker's actual attitude toward the United States is difficult to discern. Although the things the speaker says in these first two lines seem to set forth a strong sense of patriotism, the way the speaker says them is unemotional and detached. To that end, the speaker uses certain colloquial phrases that make these lines sound insincere:
"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth
The phrases "of course" and "and so forth" are informal, especially compared to the grand pronouncements the speaker makes about the United States. By working these casual phrases into these lines, then, the speaker deflates the overall patriotic tone. In fact, it's possible that the speaker is speaking sarcastically, using verbal irony to imply that patriotic platitudes lack substance. Regardless of whether the speaker is self-aware, though, the poem frames these patriotic phrases as clichés that no longer carry the significance they once had.
The opening two lines also establish the poem's gesture toward iambic pentameter. This is a meter in which each line consists of five iambs, metrical feet made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). Iambic pentameter is commonly found in sonnets, but the version of it that appears in "next to of course god america i" is highly irregular. To that end, the poem's adherence to iambic pentameter has more to do with the fact that most of its lines are roughly 10 syllables than anything else, since very few of its lines actually establish a consistent iambic rhythm. Indeed, the first line only includes one iamb:
"next to | of course | god a- | meri- | ca i
The first foot of this line ("next to") is a trochee, meaning that it contains a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. In fact, every foot except the second one ("of course," which is an iamb) is a trochee. With this in mind, it's quite clear that the poem will not strictly adhere to the iambic pentameter that is usually found in sonnets, instead using an unwieldy and unpredictable version that sounds more like free verse.