The Planners Essay

666 Words3 Pages
The Planners The poems; The Planners and The City Planners by Boey Kim Cheng and Margaret Atwood have several corresponding themes, but are both complex in various ways. The common themes appear to be; the slow destruction of society and it’s people, history and nature. Atwood depicts the poem using illustrative and vivid language, whereas Cheng conceals his feelings beneath scientific metaphors. The two poets both utilize a lot of negative vocabulary, which appropriately expresses their distain towards the planners. Atwood’s opening stanza jumps straight in and paints a clear picture of mundane suburbia. She depicts the houses to be in “pedantic roads” and that it’s all very spiritless and law-abiding. “No shouting here, nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of a power mower” her use of personification “the discouraged grass”, “the planted sanitary trees” represents how even nature has become tamed and tedious. Cheng’s opening stanza however is far more impersonal – indicated by his repeated use of the word “they” – “They plan. They build” He implies that these planners rely solely on science and mathematics and how this entire city will be swept of culture and replaced by the modern mathematically designed city. Like Atwood he refers to a sinister impact on nature “Even the seas draw back and the skies surrender.” Atwood builds her creeping suspense in her second stanza where she creates the notion that it is not possible for all this manufactured order to prevail “certain things”, “ sickness lingering”, “paint on brick surprising as a bruise”, “ a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil’; are all telling us that nature cannot be dominated. She is leading us to believe that the suburban perfection is built on shaky foundations. Cheng’s second stanza introduces the powerful metaphor of the planners as dentists who are mercilessly drilling away
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