The political representation in genre in both Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' and Rankine's Citizen collection are vastly different, with Rankine's poetry aiming to convey specific political messages to her readership on cultural issues such as sexism and racism. Keats' ode - and, indeed, the majority of his own poetry - is based on the Romantic poetic movement which has strongly influenced his work and his own style of writing. Nevertheless, the topic of gender and the role of the female in his poems is rather revealing, especially in 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' which, upon first inspection, does appear to directly contradict that of Rankine's own views on how society treats women. There is a time gap of two centuries between the two poets which is a very strong reason behind why these two offer such differing perspectives - the zeitgeist of the early nineteenth century, in which Keats wrote his poetry, and the zeitgeist of the modern early twenty-first century era do suggest a society that has been shaped by time, as the work of these two poets illustrates. Yet it is not only the subject matter that demonstrates a change over time but also the genre of lyric poetry that both Keats and Rankine make full use of and how they both manipulate their poetry as an art form in order to politically represent their chosen topics to educate their readership.
Genres are a frame of expectation framed by the imagination of the reader. Lyrical poetry, particularly in the cases of Keats' and Rankine's poetry, influence the readers significantly. The use of a poetic persona is especially prominent in lyrical poetry, as in the case of Keats' ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, as it forges a synthetic personalisation (Fairclough in Language and Power, 2001, calls it 'a compensatory tendency to give the impression of treating each of the people 'handled' en masse as an individual' ) binding the reader and persona in what could be construed as an intimate setting wherein the persona is given poetic license to perhaps manipulate the reader for the duration of the reading. The abundance of apostrophes and exclamatives in this five-stanza ode, for instance, highlights a persona who is thoroughly impassioned with the concrete subject matter of the Grecian Urn and it is this passion that further enflames the abstract concepts and imagery used to influence it. The repetition of 'happy, happy boughs!” seems to almost literally personify the 'cloyed' heart - the persona appears to directly persuade and influence the reader to remain 'happy' themselves. This might illustrate a case of instrumental power wherein the persona influences the reader as the repetition graphologically creates a united front, coupled with the fact that it appears at the start of Stanza III and is an exclamative, highlighting the emphasis in this manner. The persona, however, does appear to get more revelatory and meaningful as the poetry progresses when, in the final stanza, the final lines, seemingly spoken aloud as a recital of dialogue: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all/ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' This, alongside the archaic second person pronoun 'ye', which would have been considered dated even in 1819, establishes the persona as an almost wise, aged professor or someone of equal knowledge - and the reader as a student, being educated. This idea could be linked to the line in the final stanza, 'when old age shall this generation waste', and the deixis of 'this' suggests the persona could be referring to themselves.
This idea, of the persona in a position of educated authority and the reader as a student, is not dissimilar to that in Rankine's own lyrical poetry, particularly the passage: 'Yes, and this is how you are a citizen. Come on. Let it go. Move on.' The use of the second person pronoun again draws upon that personal relationship between the reader and poetic persona as well as illustrating the issues surrounding cosmopolitanism and of national identity . Rankine's persona identifies a far superior controversy in contrast to Keats' ode which has both benefits and drawbacks. Lerner, in his novel The Hatred of Poetry (2016), offers an argument in favour of Rankine's poetic style and genre: ‘The “lyric” is traditionally associated with brevity, intensely felt emotion, and highly musical verse; Rankine’s writing here is purposely none of those things; to claim it as lyric would baffle Keats' . However, depending on the reader and their own political representation and viewpoint of the topic, this can either exclude or include the reader based on the subtle manipulation through influential power and Rankine's focus on the politics of representation and genre.
There is a key focus on the representation of gender in both Keats' and Rankine's lyrical poetry. Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn primarily correlates the idea of femininity and beauty, meanwhile Rankine's Citizen collection features a much more negative portrayal of how women are stereotypically treated in a sexist manner, as she writes from her own experiences of the matter. Keats' final couplet of his ode features one of his most infamous lines: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all/ye know on earth, and all ye need to know,' which suggests the respect Keats had for a beauty typical of women. This notion of reverence for a particular topic is a classic feature of the Romantic period, of which Keats was a second-wave Romanticist . Stanza II further exemplifies this notion in the lines, 'She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss/For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!' Stanza III with the 'all breathing human passion' as a direct reference to the dichotomy of mortality and immortality, further emphasising the beauty in life - a beauty Keats also associates with women.
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Rankine's poetry collection, upon first inspection, appears to be nothing except a piece of prose and essays, instructing humanity on how to be better, mimicking the change in the reader from basking in the excited imagination of the persona towards the true reality of real life. A sample from her collection details an example of the invisibility of women is suggested here: 'In line at the drugstore it's finally your turn, and then it's not as he walks in front of you and puts his thing on the counter '. The third person pronoun 'he' replaces the proper noun of the man's name, creating an illusion that it is all men who behave in such a manner towards women. There is a constant theme of mischaracterisation of both men and women in Rankine's poetry, as later in the same poem the persona adjusts their perspective by adding, 'When he turns to you he is truly surprised./Oh my God, I didn't see you./You must be in a hurry, you offer./No, no, no, I really didn't see you.' The intensifier 'really' in the man's repeated declarative emphasises his claim that he did not see her, further illustrating the claim how women are almost invisible to the eye. However, due to the man's apologetic nature in this poem, Rankine is not making the point that it is men who do this to women but rather what society has deemed women to be: invisible and inferior.
However, much as in the same way as Rankine's Citizen, Keats single-minded narrowness in his categorisation of women as simply objects of beauty could also be construed as an act of sexism by today's standards, especially in Rankine's own poetic standards. In a letter to Benjamin Bailey in 1817, Keats claimed that, 'I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affections and of the truth of Imagination - what the Imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth' . This depiction of the unnamed 'she' is a commonplace occurrence in Keats' poetry with the females typically presented as 'Beauty' - so much so that Keats could be considered to be collectively objectifying women as objects of 'Beauty' and nothing more. The opening line makes use of this idea of the inferior woman: 'Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness/Thou foster-child of silence and slow time', as though the woman is simply a 'bride' and a 'child', both derogatory terms, and the removal of her voice creates an image of powerlessness. The perceived powerlessness is a topic that is very much explored within Rankine's work as well Keats, with Rankine using her political representation to manipulate her audience into subverting this stereotypical sexism in modern day life whilst Keats is simply using women as ways in which to express his beauty in life and truth, as per the Romantic movement.
In addition to the focus on sexism in Rankine's Citizen collection, the role of racism in this modern day depiction of real life is equally as significant. Keats' poetry does not make any mention of racism in either his genre or political representation through his language, due to the changing ideals of society and how different concepts and issues become socially aware. The class situation in early nineteenth century Britain is perhaps the equal to the early twenty-first century struggle in racism. Rankine's poetry is perhaps more obvious in expressing the problems in society and representing them in her poetry, with the problem of racism ever present both in society and in Rankine's poetry. This is particularly prominent in one poem: 'You have an appointment? she spits back. Then she pauses. Everything pauses... I am so sorry, so, so, sorry. ” The second person pronoun 'you' in this instant has an effect of being both inclusive and exclusive depending on the reader's own exposure to racism. This is rather atypical of the standard 'you' that is expected in modern American poetry.
The medium in which the majority of Rankine's poetry is delivered is also unusual in that it could be considered to replicate a social media post - highlighting Rankine's desire to subvert the issues of racism and national identity in a medium that would be best to educate and influence a modern readership. Rankine wishes to subvert the issues of racism and of biased, systematic characterisation - issues that are at the forefront of her poetry in a way sexism is not, as evidenced by the fact that it is an unnamed 'she' who commits the racist act by immediately judging the persona based on their skin colour. The political representation Rankine desires to get across to her readership demonstrates that racism is the biggest issue in modern day America and that, no matter what, racism cannot be forgiven simply with an apology.
Poetry and politics would initially appear to make an unlikely pairing yet Rankine - and Keats, albeit to a lesser extent - manages to prove through her collection that poetry can be used to represent a political viewpoint to her readership in a desire to subvert these typical societal standards she believes are in use in the modern world. Meanwhile, Keats' own ode is perhaps more of a representation of the Romantic movement and the importance of imagination as opposed to controversial political topics Rankine mentions in her poetry. The standards of their lyric poetry have also been proven to change over time with Rankine's mimicking more of a social media post in order to connect more with a modern day readership, however, whilst Keats' poetry might do well by recital or even just with singing, so does Rankine's poetry appear graphologically as a type of written music. The representation of politics in both poets' offer differing reasons as to why they are composing poetry yet the fact remains that they both wish to convey to a wider readership their own thoughts and ideals on a society they find to be inferior.
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