The City Planners

Question 1

The City Planners

Answer 1

• Definite article: highlights the singularity of the planners.
• Descriptor: reveals the specific profession and target location of the planners.

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

• 7 stanzas: first two long, last five short, a shift in time and space
• Decreasing stanza lengths: last stanza shortest, parallels destruction of nature due to urbanisation
• Increase in stanza length: 5th stanza discusses the City Planners, shows their power and dominance

Question 3

“a plastic hose poised in a vicious/coil; even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows”

Answer 3

• “plastic hose poised in a vicious/coil” uses metaphor of a snake, has connotations of danger and malice
• “stare of the wide windows” uses personification, likens windows to eyes, creates sense of unease and being watched
• Both build a mood of hostility and discomfort
• Caesura: a pause, like a snake pausing, poised on the verge of attack
• “wide windows”: alliteration, emphasises size of windows, representing eyes, observance

Question 4

Form

Answer 4

• Free verse: conveys the modernity and immediacy of urbanisation
• No fixed rhyme scheme or meter
• Descriptions of the suburbs on a sunday drive, reflective thoughts
• Relatively formal, lots of figurative language
• Frequent use of enjambment to create a jarring, disjointed sense of unease and unaturalness.

Question 5

“when the houses, capsized, will slide/obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers/that right now nobody notices.”

Answer 5

• “capsized”, “slide” “seas” uses a metpahor, likening houses to boats and the ground, pavement and roads to seas
• Link to glaciers, frozen rivers and also part of nature
• Alliteration: “gradual as glaciers”, “now nobody notices” underlines the gradualness and unapparent progress of the disappearing process
• Enjambment: slows down the reading of the line, mirrors the slowness of the houses’ descent
• Ambiguity: urbanisation’s dire consequences on nature? Or human technology’s downfall, “clay seas” refering to grounds and roads? Or cities of such houses, meaning the houses grow in quantity?

Question 6

“guessing directions, they sketch/transitory lines rigid as wooden borders/on a wall in the white vanishing air”

Answer 6

• Paradox: “transitory lines rigid as wooden borders”, shows the power the City Planners possess in planning the city, reveals the absurdity of their decisions and the extent of their power
• “lines rigid as wooden borders” uses simile, emphasises the strictness and the ironic preciseness of the lines, their decisions are indisputable
• “guessing directions”, mocks the ignorance and irresponsibility of the City Planners
• Ambiguity: “rigid as wooden borders” scarcasm or genuine statement? If sarcasm, wood, which can deteriorate and rot easily, can also be considered fragile and insubstantial, compared to metal and “clay”
• Satirising, contrasting the self-assumed importance and actual powerlessness of the City Planners or even humans

Question 7

Key quote 4

Question 8

Key quote 5

Question 9

Key quote 6

Question 10

Themes

Answer 10

*Environment
*Order
*Control
*Uniformity
*Individual creativity

Question 11

Time period’s context

Answer 11

• The poem was written in the 1960s, when evidence of carbon dioxide’s global warming effects became evident.

Question 12

Poet’s context

Answer 12

• Margaret Atwood is an environmental activist who often writes about human’s relationship with nature.