The City Planners Flashcards
What is the poem City Planners criticising?
Urbanisation, modernization, sub-urban development
What are two reccuring themes in Atwoods poems
Role reversals and new begginings
What is an example of irony in the poem
We are trying to control everything, but it’s all resulting in chaos and madness in the end
“But though the driveways neatly
sidestep hysteria” What language device is used here, and ?
Persnoification is used to show the madness and the things that are driving the speaker crazy.
“Sunday
Streets” What poetic device is used here and why
Enjambment – mirroring the movement of
the winding car around the smooth roads.
What is the significance of the word Hysteria, what does it connotate?
Sudden outbursts of chaotic madness, not only of the poet but also of the environment and world today.
“gradual as glaciers that right now nobody notices” What language device is used here and why?
Simile to show the unsustainability of our relationship with nature, and the soon to come climate change that is being ignored by the world
“Each in his own private blizzard” What language device is used here and why?
“They” are politicians fighting each other in private war, or maybe even society with no collective responsibility and everyone selfishly consumed by own ambitions.
“the future cracks in the plaster” What tone is in this phrase?
A tone of despair
“the sanities”What does this phrase symbolize?
The overly sanitary and pedantic urbanisation of civilization
How is the phrase “dry August sunlight” used for introduction?
As imagery for a suburban mood, to set the scene.
“tracing the panic of suburb
order in a bland madness of snows” What language device is used here and why?
Panic and order or bland madness make an oxymoron, used to show our ignorance about the terrors in the urbanisation, bland madness shows hidden chaos.
