The city planners (by Margaret Atwood)

Question 1

What is the message being said by this poem?

Answer 1

The poem is about our approach of urbanisation, housing, suburban development

Question 2

What is the first Stanza about?

Answer 2

The speaker is driving through a neighborhood with someone (us) commenting on the things we take for granted.

Question 3

what are suburbs/suburbans

Answer 3

an area outside of the city
but near it consisting of houses.

Question 4

what is Irony?

Answer 4

where the opposite happens to what you
expect.

Question 5

What is a free verse?

Answer 5

a form of poem with no consistent
rhyme/ metre

Question 6

what is an enjambment?

Answer 6

where a line of poetry continues to
the next without any punctuation.

Question 7

What is an Oxymoron?

Answer 7

two words next to each other that
contradict/ undermine one another.

Question 8

how is enjambment used in the poem?

Answer 8

lines 1 & 2 : “sunday streets” used enjambment and sibilance by mirroring the movement of the winding car around the smooth roads

Question 9

How is irony used in the poem?

Answer 9

line 4: ‘the sanities’ uses Irony as the things most people view as sane are actually kinda insane

Question 10

How is sensory imagery used in lines 9 and 10?

Answer 10

“No shouting here, or shatter… Nothing abrupt” uses imagery as complete silence; a world sedated and controlled

Question 11

What language does the poem use to give off a tone of apocalyptic?

Answer 11

Atwood uses the words “madness”, “panic” and “order” to portray an apocalyptic tone to the poem