The City Planners & The Planners
Below is some additional information on the two poems written by Margaret Atwood and Kim Boey Cheng respectively, found on the internet:
“The City Planners” by Margaret Atwood and “The Planners” by Boey Kim Cheng.
Many poets lament humanity’s soulless march toward technology and industrialization. Both “TCP” and “TP” reflect this sentiment. The poems are similar in ideas and tone, although Atwood’s is considerably more skilled and Cheng’s themes are more specific to his particular homeland.
“TCP” – themes of modernity pushing aside nature; loss of human/nature relationship; identity
Structure/Poetic Devices/Analysis. The poetic devices worth noting consist mainly of just imagery, simile and metaphor although it is good to note that the free structure keeps the focus on the images and ideas. Atwood’s ironic/sarcastic/humourous tone is also an effective device for conveying her ideas.
“TCP” – themes of modernity pushing aside nature; loss of human/nature relationship; identity
Structure/Poetic Devices/Analysis. The poetic devices worth noting consist mainly of just imagery, simile and metaphor although it is good to note that the free structure keeps the focus on the images and ideas. Atwood’s ironic/sarcastic/humourous tone is also an effective device for conveying her ideas.
- Atwood’s poem is rich with irony (humour) and linguistic inventiveness/ fun with words. It is written in her trademark free verse style, with little structure or formality.
- Her “us” is not a strong blank narrator because her situations are specific experiences and not general enough for all people to relate to. The poem also reflects her personal views, which are also too specific.
- She grabs our attention with her unusual manner of description, her irony and her claim of being offended by normal life (the all-too-normal suburbanites).
- “The houses in pedantic rows, the planted/sanitary trees” Atwood sees suburbia as dull and pedantic. She paints it not as the comfortable, safe existence that ‘normal people’ think it is, but like a boring, colourless situation. What other images clearly show her distain for suburbia?
- The lawnmower is sarcastically described as the most interesting thing in suburbia – this signals a shift in the poem for the dramatic and judgmental, no longer just merely observational. Atwood talks of how these City Planners, who are so full of themselves, think they know best; that all of their suburban creations will make the world better. Atwood disagrees, implying that modern suburbia will be the apocalypse/death of humanity. She identifies flaws in suburbia/modernization that foreshadow this breakdown of humanity – can you find them?
- Atwood’s ending is very hyperbolic, inferring that these self-absorbed and self-aggrandizing City Planners are just as empty and meaningless as the ‘burbs they pollute the world with. Consider: Is “TCP” a poem that shines with wit and brilliant phrasing, such as “bland madness”, or is it nothing more than a whiney rant, an exaggerated condemnation of something rather harmless?
- Atwood can also be showing us how these modern, manmade ‘plans’ are a form of escapism. Modern Man is hiding behind his unnatural, overly-organized environments so he does not have to feel he is not always in control (“HS”).
- Atwood can also be showing, in her comment about the Planners, that Man thinks what he does in important, but it is not and it will not last – that Planners who seek to control and mould nature are fighting an uphill battle that nature will always win (outlast).
Consider: What words would you use to describe the tone of this poem? Prove with text.
“TP” — themes of modernity pushing aside nature; loss of human/nature relationship; identity.
Structure/Poetic Devices/Analysis.
The main device worth noting, like “TCP” is imagery. Note that the metaphors are often mixed – terrible – and the imagery is hyperbolic and clumsy. Let’s focus on the message, not the bad poetry.
- Atwood’s “TCP” is insular and only deals with her personal hatred/views regarding the suburbs (and how they represent the epitome of unhealthy technological advancement/ industrialization/dehumanization/moving away from the ‘natural way’…) however, Cheng’s poem has a broader scope: he reflects on not just his personal \pet peeve’, but on his home nation’s apparently soulless route of progress.
- Cheng begins with observation/ description of modern Singapore. He talks about how everything is decided, planned, made with precision – modern Singapore has none of the vagueness or irregularity of nature, “Even the seas draw back/ and the skies surrender” is hyperbole – the Planners have planned everything so exactly that even nature seems to bend to their will/plan. The idea that everything natural is gone and only the perfection of mathematics remains. Can you find more examples of this Singaporean ‘perfection?'
- The second stanza is also in many ways descriptive, but here for the first time the poem is also meaningful. Like Atwood, Cheng does not like the blind stomp toward technology and away from nature – although he focuses his criticism on Singapore instead of the concept of modern suburbia. Both could be described as anti- modernist.
- Singapore used to be a colony and now it wants to redefine itself on its own terms. It chooses to do so, says Cheng, by being a defiantly modern, scientific, unsentimental nation. Cheng’s description is dramatic – he writes of “history” being “new again”, and being blasted away by the drills. This can be seen as an overly simplistic analysis of Singapore.
- Cheng goes so far as to make Singapore seem like a scary, inhuman state now (examples?) and says that “But my heart would not bleed/poetry” implying that art/poetry and modern Singapore cannot exist at the same time/in the same place. NB: he wrote this after moving to Australia. He fears the Planners damage both the past and future by ignoring M/N relationship, ignoring nature in general and through their arrogance (believing themselves to be better than nature/beyond it/capable of creating perfection). Consider: Having read both “TCP” and “TP” now, who exactly do you think these Planners are? Can you think of job descriptions or real-life examples of these ‘people’?
- Compare/Contrast:
- Both poems revolve around the poet lamenting the move away from nature, toward technology /modernity and use poetic devices to emphasize this point: hyperbole, imagery, sarcasm, ironic humour.
- Both poems are only one-sided opinions/declarations about life. They make damning judgments about society without looking at the other side of the coin/other perspective or offering any solutions. They are argumentative rather than evocative, ‘preachy’ rather than meditative.
- Both lament a lack of M/N relationship (they portray a lack of N in life as harmful – how?)
- Both can be said to also be about identity, in that these poets build part of their identity on the fact that they disagree so strongly with the Planners (both set themselves apart from ‘them’/ ‘the bad/misguided Planners’). Consider: What words would you use to describe the tone of this poem? Prove with text.
The City Planners
ReplyDeleteBy Margaret Atwood
Cruising these residential Sunday
streets in dry August sunlight:
what offends us is
the sanities:
the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees, assert
levelness of surface like a rebuke
to the dent in our car door.
No shouting here, or
shatter of glass; nothing more abrupt
than the rational whine of a power mower
cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.
But though the driveways neatly
sidestep hysteria
by being even, the roofs all display
the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky,
certain things:
the smell of spilled oil a faint
sickness lingering in the garages,
a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,
a plastic hose poised in a vicious
coil; even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows
give momentary access to
the landscape behind or under
the future cracks in the plaster
when the houses, capsized, will slide
obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers
that right now nobody notices.
That is where the City Planners
with the insane faces of political conspirators
are scattered over unsurveyed
territories, concealed from each other,
each in his own private blizzard;
guessing directions, they sketch
transitory lines rigid as wooden borders
on a wall in the white vanishing air
tracing the panic of suburb
order in a bland madness of snows.
The Planners
ReplyDeleteBy Boey Kim Cheng
They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded,
filled with permutations of possbilities.
The buildings are in alignment with the roads
which meet at desired points
linked by bridges all hang
in the grace of mathematics.
They build and will not stop.
Even the sea draws back
and the skies surrender.
They erase the flaws,
the blemishes of the past,
knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity.
All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold.
The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth.
Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
They have the means.
They have it all so it will not hurt,
so history is new again. The piling will not stop.
The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century.
But my heart would not bleed
poetry. Not a single drop
to stain the blueprint
of our past’s tomorrow.
A student's response...
ReplyDeleteThe poet Margaret Eleanor Atwood, who happens to be a prolific novelist and
a literary critic, has written this poem about The City Planners. They are not just
any city planners they are the ones who are brain washing humans and are attempting
to create a world so perfect by removing the imperfection of nature and by doing
this, they do not know they are bringing doom to themselves. The name itself is suggesting, the poem is about architects and a city and other aspects related to it.
The first line of the poem “cruising these residential Sunday streets in dry August sunlight” this line gives us the impression that the atmosphere the poet is describing is very relaxing and calming. The word ‘cruising’ means travelling around without any particular direction and is combined with the alliterative ‘Sunday Streets’ and this starts to create an image in our mind of a weekend vacation and ‘dry August sunlight’ pauses the reader into further imagination of a perfect summer time in suburbia.
The next line ‘what offends us is the sanities’ comes as a jolt and the rest of the poem is Atwood’s criticism of suburbia. She thinks suburbs are constructed without personality or originality. ‘Pedantic rows’ and ‘sanitary trees’ express the poet’s thoughts about suburbia which she describes as too clean, too tidy and organized, without expression of individuality and are about total perfection.
The second stanza continues the idea of a predicament in suburbia and the apparent resemblance between stanza 1 and 2 is about the writer complaining about suburbian
life and culture. This also suggests the change in idea in continuation with the 3rd stanza.
The poet, Margaret Atwood’s the hot sky’ and this makes us think that all houses, people and cars are all the very same and do not have any personality of any kind. Some images that stand out for Attwood in suburbia are the offensive smell of oil which smells faintly like vomit and a splash of paint is compared to a bruise.
The next part of the poem ends the complaints and then shows us the consequences of being so flawless. And the writer tells us that by being flawless and by damaging and killing nature, nature itself will destroy us. This we see in the lines
”when the houses, capsized, will slide obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers
that right now nobody notices”. In these lines the poetic techniques portray that no one in suburbia sees the larger picture of their estates.
The fourth stanza establishes a new idea of The City Planners and portrays the real estate agents to have power and authority over the city, as they control the buying and selling of houses and they work to keep everyone happy including themselves.
We see all this from the line 29-32, the ‘city planner’ who we presume to be are the real estate agents and this line tells us where they work and tells us where the agents work and how each house will be worked on in that area.
The fifth stanza has more abstract ideas on blizzards (literal or metaphorical meaning, both can be used for interpretation) which contrast with the first 3 stanzas in which there are more concrete ideas and are closed to only one interpretation, one single meaning.
In line 34 the diction used describes a flourishing market and refers back to the real estate agents. Line 35 then abstractly describes the wooden boards “rigid as wooden boards”.
Lines 37 uses diction to indicate future problems and chaos in the real estate industry, and in continuation to the 37th line 38 talks about a long term economical downfall in the real estate agency.
The themes in the poems are nature vs man, blizzards and snows are used as extended metaphors for the blindness and confusions of a city to the tasteless customs the city itself comprises off.
Summary
ReplyDeleteThe poem The Planners echoes the sentiments expressed in The City Planners by Margaret Atwood. While Atwood objects to the soulless uniformity, Cheng find the unchecked expansion a source of annoyance. Cheng probably wrote his poem about Singapore, one of the most densely populated cities where every square inch is built up. In the name of expansion, history is erased and old buildings are brought down and their space taken up shiny new buildings which have a soul of glass and steel. Architects work with the same dexterity of dentists who extract old teeth and replace the gaps with gold teeth. It is as if all pain of loss has been removed by using anaesthesia or the people suffer from amnesia or have been hypnotised to feel no pain. The poet is the only one who feels the pain of loss but sarcastically, he says that he will let the blood of his poetry stain the blueprint of future buildings.
Main Subject
The main subject of the poem is the mindless expansion in a city. In the name of expansion and progress, historical sites are being damaged and meaningless bridged built that lead nowhere. There is mathematical precision but no grace. The authorities try to make it painless by giving anaesthesia in the form of incentives like and the citizens themselves suffer from amnesia.
Purpose
The purpose of the poem is to rail against the senseless construction that goes on in cities in the name of progress and expansion, obliterating historical monuments and history itself. People seemed to be lulled into an amnesia-like torpor as the pain has been numbed by various incentives given by the authorities.
“Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
They have the means.
They have it all so it will not hurt,”
Emotions
The emotion is mainly anger at what is happening to the poet’s city. The city is expanding with meaningless bridges and roads that go nowhere being built at every turn. The history of the city is being destroyed. The poet sarcastically says that he will not ‘bleed’ poetry and blot tomorrow’s blue print that is being erected on the past.
Technique / Craftsmanship
Cheng plunges headlong into the issue of uncontrolled development in his city. The pet uses several negatives “will not stop, will not hurt” to indicate that though he wishes otherwise, what happens is against his wishes.
Structure
The structure of the poem is simple. The first two stanzas are long, detailing what the planners do to his city and the last stanza that oozes sarcasm says the poet will bleed his poetry and let the blood of his verses stain their blueprint. The future of the city is being built on the past which is being razed to make way for tomorrow.
Language
The diction is everyday words that have immediacy. This is no poet laureate creating poetry to mark an occasion but a common citizen railing against what they are doing to his beloved city.
They erase the flaws,
the blemishes of the past, knock off
useless blocks with dental dexterity.
For poetic effect, he uses alliteration like “dental dexterity, skies surrender, permutations of possibilities”.
Imagery
There are several images like mathematics used to design bridges that hang just so, flaws in the construction being erased like a dentist exacting offending teeth to make a perfect smile and filling up gaps with gold teeth which are commonly seen in the east. The poet considers poetry his life-blood and he does not want to shed that and blot the blue print of the future. He realises that protesting is of no use because “They have the means.”
Movement / Rhyme
There is no formal rhyme scheme but alliteration is used in some places like “dental dexterity, skies surrender, permutations of possibilities”.
Figures of speech
The image on the dentist producing a perfect smile leads on to the images of “anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis” since they are all medically connected. With clinical precision, the planners go about their job.
Biographical details
ReplyDelete• Boey Kim Cheng was born in Singapore in 1965. He
received his Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts
degrees in English Literature from the National
University of Singapore.
• Worked for some time in America as a probation
officer
• Disillusioned with the state of literary and cultural
politics in Singapore, Boey left for Sydney with his
wife in 1996.
• in Australia, Boey completed his Ph.D. studies with
the University of Macquarie. Boey is currently an
Australian citizen and teaches creative writing at the
University of Newcastle
Literary History
• In 1987, Boey won first prize at the National University of Singapore
Poetry Competition while studying as an undergraduate.
• Aged 24, he published his first collection of poetry(Somewherebound).
it went on to win the National Book Development Councils
(NBDCS) Book Award for Poetry in 1992.
• his second volume of poems Another Place received the
commendation award at the NBDCS Book Awards.
• In 1995, Days Of No Name, which was inspired by the people
whom he met in the United States, was awarded a merit at the
Singapore Literature Prize.
• In recognition of his artistic talent and contributions, Boey received
the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award in 1996.
• Boey produced his fourth volume of poetry in 2006. After the Fire
deals primarily with the passing of his father in 2000.
• Boey's works have also appeared in many poetry anthologies
Themes
ReplyDelete• The disillusionment of the artist and the intellectual
for the supposedly soulless path of technological
progress and industrialization.
• the discomfort of the artist with mundane, everyday
life and with science-driven, apparently heartless
modernist progress
• Different interpretations of progress. Some treasure
scientific progress and others culture growth
• The plans become the facade of culture, their form
of escapism
• History cycles, what is the planners dream today,
will be removed by the next generation coming
along.
Analysis-Stanza One
• Characterises planning as solving a mathematical problem. “permutations”
can be seen to offer many options or seen as confined compared to infinite
arrangements in nature. “gridded” describes the layout as well of implying
that creativity is confined, boxed in.
• Planning is seen as a way of shutting out nature attempting to remove the
uncertainty it brings. “the sea draws back and the skies surrender.” can be
viewed with a touch of irony implying that nature is afraid of human
expansion, giving it an attribute nature can not/does not possess.
• Describes what the planners do. Giving the image of everything in prefect
order “meet at desired points”
• The author excludes himself, from the planners through repeating “they”
(twice) although every person plays their role in the collective city. This also
views them objectively making them appear harsh, thinking and organised,
but without love or compassion.
• Alliteration: “skies surrender."
Analysis-Stanza Two
• Imagery of dentistry, an exact science. “dental dexterity”,
“gaps are plugged with gleaming gold”, “wears perfect rows
of shining teeth”
• The dentist imagery moves onto “anaesthesia” and the
numbing of pain associated with dentistry
• “drilling” can provide a link between the metaphor and the
actual actions of the planners.
• Moves away from describing the planners goals, and more
towards how they are viewed.
• Alliteration: “dental dexterity” “gleaming gold”
• “They have it all so it will not hurt, so history is new again. “
the implication is that history hurts people and that the scars
of the past remain, and humans are constantly trying to heal
the pains of the past.
Analysis-Stanza Three
• “blueprint” linking to construction plans.
• Blood imagery: “bleed” “single drop” “stain”
negative diction, creates a stark ending to
the poem.
• “would not bleed poetry” gives the idea that
art is not part of the modern expansionist city
building, ironic as part of a poem
• Gives the idea that The reality lapses behind
the dreams of the planners. Seldom coming
into fruition the exact pristine way they
envisage.
Other points
• Negatives used throughout poem: “not a single...”
“the piling will not stop” “it will not hurt” “they build
and will not stop”. Gives the idea that the poet
wants the opposite to take place
• The poet appears Sceptical about the benefits of
the planners progress, and fears for the wider
implications of their actions. Seeing them as
damaging the past and reducing the quality of the
future.
Comparison: ‘city planners’ by Magaret Atwood
• Both opening stanzas revolve a round precision and accuracy
“pedantic rows... Rational... Straight” and “alignment... Desired
points”
• Both depict the city and the planning of it as unfeeling. “neatly
sidestep hysteria...same slant of avoidance... two fixed stare of the
wide windows...” and “drilling through the fossils of last century”
• What Atwood describes as “the sanities” can be seen as the ways
to remove the pain.
• Atwood envisons the collapse of the city where as Cheng discusses
the destruction of the remains of past cities.
• Both deal with the suppression of nature, one depicts the city
controlling natures existence and the others views the boundaries
of nature pulling back. “the planted sanitary trees... Discouraged
grass” and “the seas draw back... Skies surrender.”
Introduction
ReplyDeleteThe poem "The Planners" is similar in design and theme to Margaret Atwood's "The City-Planners".The planners of this so-called pseudo-modern civilization build their plan with such dexterity, that the minutest of demands are met. Their level of analysis scans all permutations of possibilities. The buildings are lined up religiously alongside the roads. These roads are arranged to meet at convenient points,defying all logic. The different spaces are 'gridded' and linked mathematically in confinements, whereas creativity is infinite. The construction progresses and nothing interferes with it Even nature is not spared in the process, and therefore the sea draws back in fear and the skies surrender in abandon.
Artificial Perfection
The flaws are effortlessly erased. Past mistakes are knocked off callously, though one learns the most from one's mistakes. The whole process is likened to a dental procedure. The blocks are removed with dental dexterity. All the gaps are neatly filled in with cement akin to 'gleaming gold." The country comes across as perfect rows of shining teeth, flaunting a flamboyant smile.
The feeling that they have all the means, financial stability and economic security, makes them feel complacent. "They have the means./They have it all so it will not hurt." They possess all the means to make citizens comply with acceptable practices in accordance with their "Dentistry". 'Anesthesia',in such a stance, is to be numb to the rash developments. 'Amnesia' becomes a state of detachment to sentimentality and previous entities. And hypnosis is done to conform to new policies and developments. The Planners possesses the resources, so that History is all set to turn over a new leaf. The remnants of the past are suitably piled up one over the other. In the research to build a new civilization, nothing is spared. History is drilled right to its roots. The process marks the triumph of scientific advancement over cultural growth. No Real Present
The poet asserts that his heart would not dare to bleed a single drop of poetry. He does not want emotions to intrude into this domain of scientific achievements. The poet does not want Art to tamper with Technology-driven progress. And, ironically, the poem is a satire on the same. The poet exclaims : "But my heart would not bleed/poetry. Not a single drop /to stain the blueprint/of our past's tomorrow."
As opposed to 'my heart bleeds' in "Ode to the West Wind" marked by Shelley's typical revolutionary zeal; here the heart does not want to bleed. He does not want a single drop of human blood to drop on the artificial blueprint of "our past's tomorrow." Note that there is mention of just the 'past' and 'tomorrow'. There is no mention of the 'present', as the present is never real for the poet.
More student responses and interpretations...
ReplyDeleteThe basic interpretation of the poem is about building and going into depth with that could mean many things. I got an idea that the gist of the poem has to do with building proper, real buildings however, those buildings are trying to cover or possibly erase something that they feel the people don’t need to see or know about. They’re trying to get rid of some sort of evidence.
The first stanza talks about the planning and the beginning of the building plan and how everything has to be perfect and that all possible methods to ensure perfection, are indeed used for example the line “in the grace of mathematics,” is a method of perfection because it’s known anything that’s proved with mathematics, when it comes to building, is correct. Towards the end, the lines “They build and will not stop. Even the seas draw back and the skies surrender.” That is talking about how much of a huge project this building of the structure is that even the greatest things, the land and sea, are holding back. It’s emphasizing on how much of a huge deal the building is and also the way the writer starts those two lines with capital letters draws the readers attention to just how important those two lines actually are.
The second stanza talks more about the perfection of the buildings and the country and it goes more in depth as to just how perfect it is by adding, “erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past,” “the country wears perfect rows of shining teeth.” Then the author brings in “anesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis,” those are all conditions of memory loss or forgetfulness. That line emphasizes even more on the fact that those buildings are trying to cover up the country’s past. The line “so history is new again,” shows how they’re trying to re-create history again and they won’t stop building over the old, original past. “Drilling goes right through the fossils of the last century,” shows how the building is moving and going through the past, which shows how the past is being ignored and neglected in a way.
The third stanza brings in the author’s opinion about the whole situation and he’s showing that he doesn’t agree. His opinion is shown in the line, “not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow,” since a stain is known as permanent damage to something so the writer is showing how he will never be able to permanently damage the country’s past or present.
The last paragraph has the most literary devices because there is caesura, which shows a sudden pause in the middle of the stanza, “poetry. Not a single drop,” and there’s elegy which shows the regret of loss of something and the writer when he shows how he’ll never be able to remove the past even though that’s what others are trying to do. There was an oxymoron with the line “past’s tomorrow,” because it contradicts itself as it’s talking about two different tenses and two different time periods. Lastly, there is a comparison of every day things, everyone trying to hide their past, and it’s magnified to a larger scale, as a country is trying to hide it’s past.
The similarity between this poem and the previous poem we did is that they both talk about, and focus on, making and proving perfection and making it a part of peoples’ lives.
To me, this poem is almost the opposite of ‘The City Planners’ by Margaret Atwood in the point-of-view sense of it. In The City Planners, the writer had a very negative view of the destruction and building of a concrete jungle whereas in this poem the view of new buildings with absolute perfection in looked fondly at.
ReplyDeleteThe first stanza talks a lot about the potential of a certain area that’s been made to look almost artificial – in a positive way. It’s neat and tidy, organised and specific. The writer comes across as very much in favour of the use of maths to create this perfect humanized city that everyone has dreamt of where there’s no commotion or disputes. It’s almost like an ever growing quilt in terms of the geometric shapes and imagery of the city. ‘Even the sea draws back, and the skies surrender’; apart from just the point of the city continuously growing city, it gives a feel of how humans have completely taken over the course of nature – the seas and skies don’t trance themselves freely; they respond to our human actions.
The second stanza talks about how this ‘new and improved’ city differs and benefits us in comparison to the ‘old, in-organised city’. For example; ‘they erase the flaws’. The first part of this stanza is like an extended metaphor of a dentist appointment – creating and fixing perfection. ‘Anaesthesia, amnesia and hypnosis’; medicine, memory loss and a state of drowsy – dreaminess. I think this refers to the rapidly changing environment from one century to the next. It’s a tremendous change yet we all forget it in the end and live in the present. ‘The drilling goes right through the fossils of the last century’ this tells me everything gets forgotten in all the new changes that happen and you can’t do much about it.
To me, the third stanza is the most important. It ties the whole situation together and adds the writer’s emotion to it; without it, it would be any old descriptive sort of poem. But this last stanza tells us a lot not just about the poem but about the writer as well. I interpret these four lines as that the writer would not change a thing about today – the present – even if he the choice to.
The Planners
ReplyDeleteIn the first stanza the poet talks about building being planned and built, how the city can be changed (“permutations”). The poet talks about how perfectly aligned the road and the building are which is similar to what the poet in the city planners. The poet talks about how the city is planned carefully with the help of math which is similar to what the poet was talking about in the city planners talking about how the planners sketched the lines to plan out the city.
In the last two lines of the first stanza the poet talks about the city’s relentless push to expand taking not only space that was sky but also the sea.
The poet talks about their continuous effort to “erase the flaws” in the city, in city planners the poet also takes up this point when she talks about how thourghly the gardens are tendered and how any flaws are plastered up “the future cracks in the plaster” this is similar to the line “All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold” they both talk about the imperfect cracks being patched up.
The poet talks about the point that improvements are continuously being made in the line “The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century” this line also creates imagery helps you to picture the setting the noise that is heard. The poet also creates a lot of imagery throughout the second stanza describing how the building are alighned and perfect this is also the description in the city planners “the houses in pedantic rows” The last stanza I think the poet is trying to express his feeling on all the change how although the past the old buildings are being destroyed he is choosing not to shed a tear for his lost past because if he gets upset about it he will always be upset.
All together the poems are very similar with their descriptions and the poets ideas although while the citty planners talks about the perfectness and how its never changing the planners talks about how its always changing.
The City Planners – Margaret Atwood
ReplyDeleteSummary
Margaret Atwood finds the identical houses of suburbia offending to the eye. There is nothing to set one house apart from another. The houses look like clones of each other, even the trees are uniform and the roads are so level, they seem to be rebuking the dent on their car. The houses seem soulless and boring. They have been designed by unimaginative city planners who have no spark of creativity. Silence pervades suburbia; the only intruding sound is of the lawn mower that keeps the grass cut in identical fashion in all the houses. The only things that set the houses apart are:
“ the smell of spilled oil a faint
sickness lingering in the garages,
a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,
a plastic hose poised in a vicious
coil;”
The town planners are so taken by the present moment of designing soulless houses they don’t seem to care whether the houses will dissolve into a clayey sludge one day and float away.
Main Subject
The main theme is the poet’s dislike for the suburban houses that look like they have been cast in the same mould. There is no imagination or creativity seen and this uniformity offends her eye. The monotony and the silence set her on edge. There is no sound of laughter heard or any sign of life seen. The silence is only broken by the whirr of the lawn mower which works to make the grass uniformly cut.
“No shouting here, or
shatter of glass; nothing more abrupt
than the rational whine of a power mower
cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.”
The city planners are working so hard at making these cloned houses that they are not concerned about what could happen in the future to these houses.
Purpose
Margaret Atwood was an environmentalist who wrote this poem to protest against the city planners who have designed suburban houses with no imagination. They celebrate monotony and uniformity. There are rows and rows all looking alike. There is humour, irony and annoyance in the poem.
Emotions
The emotion that registers first is the annoyance the poet feels as she drives or walks along a suburb in a city where all the houses resemble each other. It is monotonous and soulless. The houses don’t seem lived in; there is no noise emanating save that of the lawn mower that cuts the grass in identical swathes. The poet feels that the city planners do not care what happens to the houses they design.
Technique / Craftsmanship
The poem moves headlong into what offends the poet and her companion as they walk or drive along the suburbs that have been designed by the city planners. Stanzas are of uneven length written apparently as thoughts come into her mind. Free verse is the vehicle used by the poet.
Structure
ReplyDeleteStarting with long stanzas, the poet moves on to brief three line and two line stanzas which foretell the fate that could befall the housing estates in case of a natural calamity. The planners are working to create more suburbs across the “bland madness of snows” of Canada.
Language
Easy every language written without any literary artifice marks the initial stanzas. When the poet prophecies the likely outcome of a revenge by nature, she uses metaphors.
Imagery
The houses are so orderly and spotless that an ordinary splash of paint is considered a bruise and a commonplace coiled hose pipe as deadly as a snake posed to strike.
a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,
a plastic hose poised in a vicious
coil;
In a series of metaphors, the poet sketches the consequences of such frenzied development. The houses may capsize and float away on a sea of mud due to man’s thoughtlessness. There are already signs but no one notices them.
Movement / Rhythm / Sound
Moving from the long slow early stanzas, the poem picks up speed as thoughts come rushing in. Metaphors follow each other in succession.
Figures of Speech
The poet uses metaphors to describe the sameness of the suburb and the monotony of life there. What sets the houses apart are only insignificant things like a splash of paint, a coiled hosepipe or an oil stain – nothing material. The slanting roofs, the windows and even the gardens have no special character. There is no life or movement seen; it is like a dead city.
The Planners – Boey Kim Cheng
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The poem The Planners echoes the sentiments expressed in The City Planners by Margaret Atwood. While Atwood objects to the soulless uniformity, Cheng find the unchecked expansion a source of annoyance. Cheng probably wrote his poem about Singapore, one of the most densely populated cities where every square inch is built up. In the name of expansion, history is erased and old buildings are brought down and their space taken up shiny new buildings which have a soul of glass and steel. Architects work with the same dexterity of dentists who extract old teeth and replace the gaps with gold teeth. It is as if all pain of loss has been removed by using anaesthesia or the people suffer from amnesia or have been hypnotised to feel no pain. The poet is the only one who feels the pain of loss but sarcastically, he says that he will let the blood of his poetry stain the blueprint of future buildings.
Main Subject
The main subject of the poem is the mindless expansion in a city. In the name of expansion and progress, historical sites are being damaged and meaningless bridged built that lead nowhere. There is mathematical precision but no grace. The authorities try to make it painless by giving anaesthesia in the form of incentives like and the citizens themselves suffer from amnesia.
Purpose
The purpose of the poem is to rail against the senseless construction that goes on in cities in the name of progress and expansion, obliterating historical monuments and history itself. People seemed to be lulled into an amnesia-like torpor as the pain has been numbed by various incentives given by the authorities.
“Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
They have the means.
They have it all so it will not hurt,”
Emotions
The emotion is mainly anger at what is happening to the poet’s city. The city is expanding with meaningless bridges and roads that go nowhere being built at every turn. The history of the city is being destroyed. The poet sarcastically says that he will not ‘bleed’ poetry and blot tomorrow’s blue print that is being erected on the past.
Technique / Craftsmanship
ReplyDeleteCheng plunges headlong into the issue of uncontrolled development in his city. The pet uses several negatives “will not stop, will not hurt” to indicate that though he wishes otherwise, what happens is against his wishes.
Structure
The structure of the poem is simple. The first two stanzas are long, detailing what the planners do to his city and the last stanza that oozes sarcasm says the poet will bleed his poetry and let the blood of his verses stain their blueprint. The future of the city is being built on the past which is being razed to make way for tomorrow.
Language
The diction is everyday words that have immediacy. This is no poet laureate creating poetry to mark an occasion but a common citizen railing against what they are doing to his beloved city.
They erase the flaws,
the blemishes of the past, knock off
useless blocks with dental dexterity.
For poetic effect, he uses alliteration like “dental dexterity, skies surrender, permutations of possibilities”.
Imagery
There are several images like mathematics used to design bridges that hang just so, flaws in the construction being erased like a dentist exacting offending teeth to make a perfect smile and filling up gaps with gold teeth which are commonly seen in the east. The poet considers poetry his life-blood and he does not want to shed that and blot the blue print of the future. He realises that protesting is of no use because “They have the means.”
Movement / Rhyme
There is no formal rhyme scheme but alliteration is used in some places like “dental dexterity, skies surrender, permutations of possibilities”.
Figures of speech
The image on the dentist producing a perfect smile leads on to the images of “anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis” since they are all medically connected. With clinical precision, the planners go about their job.
The City Planners and The Planners
ReplyDeleteOne common concern of modern poetry is the disillusionment of the artist and the intellectual for the supposedly soulless path of technological progress and industrialization. Two poems that subscribe to this school of thought are Margaret Atwood’s “The City Planners” and Boey Kim Cheng’s “The Planners”. The poems are indeed remarkably similar in ideas and tone, although the former is considerably more skilled, and the latter introduces themes more specific to the poet’s homeland. They are nevertheless thus highly suited for comparison.
Atwood’s poem is rich with irony and linguistic inventiveness. It is written in her trademark free verse style, with little structure or formality. In attacking the “bland madness” of the suburbs, Atwood begins by using humour; there is no denying the unusual effectiveness of the lines “what offends us is/the sanities”. The “us” here is however a rather weak word for “me”, since it is only her own view that the poet is discussing, and by grouping either the reader or a companion alongside herself she risks being dishonest. Nevertheless, to begin a poem in this way is indeed noteworthy and unusual, as is the idea of being offended by normal life. From the start she thus sets herself apart from the all-too-normal suburbanites, who are appalled by any departure from sanity. Atwood then proceeds to describe and thus debunk these “sanities”, and it is here that she is most effective; in her contemptuous, gleefully ironic phrasing, we get an excellent sense of how puerile she finds the order and sameness of modern life, and at this point I even agreed. “The houses in pedantic rows, the planted/sanitary trees”...this truly seems like not the comfortable, safe existence that is from another perspective but like a boring, colourless situation. At the end of this second stanza, Atwood writes of a lawn mower, mockingly describing it as the most surprising or interesting thing that the suburb offers. It is the poem’s most powerful image and also the point where in my view the poem begins to fall apart. At this point Atwood proceeds to reveal the slight flaws in the rigid perfection,
ReplyDeletethe signs that she sees as indicative of the future apocalypse, in which the suburban houses will be revealed as nothing more than insignificant, the epitome of nothingness. Atwood’s hyperbolic concluding stanzas describe the strangely self-important City Planners, who do not realize that far from being vital to the future of the world they are as empty and meaningless as their creations. Atwood is quite right to point that suburbia amounts on level to nothingness. Her poem shines with wit and brilliant phrasing: the ability to coin a phrase such as “bland madness” is not one to be lightly disregarded. Yet on a second, third and fourth reading “The City Planners” is revealed to be a whiney rant, an exaggerated condemnation of something rather harmless. Atwood on the one hand claims that suburbia is a petty nothingness and yet is seemingly outraged by it. While the poem has many moments of linguistic brilliance, Atwood shows no restraint, assaulting the reader with rich and complex phrase after rich and complex phrase. And in the final analysis it is rather difficult to choose between subject, the small and unimportant but rational and pleasant suburb existence and the author, strangely offended, erratically brilliant and unremittingly hysterical. The residents of such a suburb would be rather bemused by this talk of “the panic of suburb order”; indeed they would think the poet rather unhinged. But this is indicative not only of the reactionary ideology of the suburbanite but also of the fact that Atwood has little to truly complain about. “The City Planners” is thus eventually a well-expressed nothing about nothing. “The Planners” by Boey Kim Cheng at first offers more possibilities for interesting analysis. Unlike Atwood’s doggedly insular work, the poem deals not with Cheng’s personal hatred for his immediate surroundings but with his reflections on his home nation’s apparently soulless route of progress. It is unfortunate therefore that he lacks her poetic talent. It is, nevertheless, in many ways an interesting poem to study, and in this case successive readings greatly enhanced my appreciation of the work.
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