The City Planners By Margaret Atwood Stanza 1 Overview: Stanza 1 arises a predicament of the uniformness of suburbia describing small things like trees, grass and houses (nature). The diction ties in with the concept of nothing exciting happening in suburbia. For example, words like offend, sanitary, levelness, abrupt, rational and discouraged don t inspire any exciting thought or captivation. Where words like raw, cry or moan could have been used to depict the sound of a mower the word whine has been used which is overtly bland Line 1: Cruising gives an indication of the diction in the poem; easygoing feel. Residential introduces the idea of real estate early. Sunday helps emphasis the feel; relaxed, fun, enjoyable. Line 2: Dry August sunlight refers to the province in which the poet comes from (Canada), more specifically the precise climate in Canada, in the month of August (Summer). The Adjective dry helps emphasis this. Line 3 & 4: The noun sanities talks about their perception on suburbia. The definition of the word sanity varies from discipline to discipline. But one thing common with all the interpretations of this word is that it means to be reasonable and have sound of mind. In this context it is a noun as it is almost like a title to the line. It also describes the way the poet perceives suburbia being that it is overly constructed. At the end of line 4 there is a colon, which shows there is going to be a list of something. Atwood possibly used the word sanity as she is commenting on a lower socio economic perspective. Line 5: Pedantic means ordered and uniform. It talks about the houses order being too thought over and overly constructed. Line 6 8: Talks about how the trees are being planted so uniformly it has a resemblance to the surface of a car door with a dent in it. Society can familiarize with a dent in a car door better than the way these trees are planted in suburbia. More over this use of visual imagery helps the reader identify with this or it could be a simile referring to the fluctuating height difference between trees similar to that of a dent in a car door. Also, the use of this particular imagery has negative connotations. The use of our makes the statement more personal- something we (the audience) can relate to. Line 9: No shouting here puts suburbia in a good light. It describes how it is a good area to live in, in comparison to areas in an economic struggle, so to speak. Note: This line is the only line in stanza one that begins with a capital letter, excluding line one, which gives special attention to this line, which represents a slight change of an idea.
Line 10: Continues the idea of suburbia being perfect, as it were. Line 11: Rational whine could be perceived as an oxymoron. When we think of a whine, we think of a baby crying or nagging its mother but when paired with the verb rational it makes it acceptable. A power mower gives the source of the whine and it gives a distinct description of the lawnmower with the adjective power. Line 12: Straight swath means a path that is neat and well groomed. Discouraged grass could mean one of two things; the grass being discouraged referring to how often it is cut, most probably by a personal gardener or two, discouraged meaning fake grass. Stanza Two Overview Continues the predicament that challenges suburbia in a way by pointing out flaws. There is a distinct similarity to stanza one and two, that there is a list of complaints, so to speak, of things that are offensive in suburbia with effective use of imagery. Stanza two also suggests the idea that there will be a change in focus or a resolution that is brought about in stanza three. Line 13 17: The conjunction but adds continuity between stanza one and two. The phrase talking about driveways that neatly side-step hysteria talks about how the form of the driveways can represent suburbia as a whole, evades being crazy (hysteria). Also it is good to note the link between sanities and hysteriathat they both link to a mental well-being/ state. It suggests hysteria is still there but they temporarily side step it by being even. The roofs all display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky is a good use of visual imagery that is a direct reference to the shape of the roofs. The colon at the end of the line leaves room for a list- similar to stanza one. Line 18: When read aloud this line has a nice ring to it. It familiarizes with our sense of smell, with the adjective faint. The line ends at faint because it rhymes with paint in line 20 and they have a significant relevance to eachother- oil, paint and the imagery attached to it. Line 19: Sickness in the garages refers to the aforementioned concept of sidestepping hysteria, although suburbia suggests flawlessness and perfectness, there are still flaws that are inevitable and flaws that will be alluded to in stanza three. Line 20: Gives the analogy of a rogue of paint that would be on the house that is surprising as a bruise. When a bruise appears on the body it is very surprising. Possibly from the belief that the bruise induced injury doesn t constitute the bruise or that it is surprising that it is an injury that can t be explained, that the injury has been forgotten or from not remembering how or why it happened. This metaphor gives incite into the perception of people in suburbia.
Line 21-22: Furthers the concepts of flaws in suburbia. Gives a description of a garden appliance that is usually positive or neutrally accepted in society a bad perception. This image with the help of words such, as viscous coil are reminiscent of the form of a snake. The semi-colon leaves room for elaboration. The too fixed stare could be a reference to the eyes of a snake with its eyes fixed on its prey. Stanza 3 Overview: Stanza three is the end of complaints and shows the consequences of being so greedy. It also shows the reality of the real estate agency. This stanza is short, swift and simple. Line 23-25: Is a continuing sentence from stanza two. It talks about the too fixed stare of the windows giving a small glimpse into the realities of material thingsthey will eventually succumb to nothing, this is conveyed by line 23 where it says gives momentary access aswell as line 25 where it says; the future cracks in the plaster. The landscape referred to in line 24 is in a literal sense and it is the nature (trees) that can be seen through the windows. Line 26-28: The preposition when says it will happen eventually. And the adjective capsized explains the outcome of these houses. The term clay seas could refer to the already capsized houses in abundance of dirt/ rubble. Dirt and rubble referring to the clay and the quantity referring to the seas. It also suggests this day or reckoning, so to speak, with the use of the simile gradual as glaciers in line 27- alliteration also used in the simile to emphasis the significance of this particular poetic device. Line 28 summarizes the stanza with no flash adjectives or complex poetic techniques. It also shows that nobody possibly being the people of suburbia they do not see the big picture of their graceful estate(s). Stanza Four Overview: Introduces a new idea that being the city planners, who they are and where they work. The phrasing of the real estate agents gives a sense of power or authority to them saying they plan the city and they have complete control of the way houses are bought/sold- they claim to act in the best interest of only one party that being the buyer or seller but the reality is they not only act on the best interest for both parties, but for themselves as well. Line 29-32: Talks about the city planners who we interpreted to be real estate agents and where their work is most prominent. The similarities between the intense work ethic depicted by facial expression of political conspirators and real estate agents is conveyed by visual imagery. Line 32 tells of where these real estate agents work, with the noun territories. The word scattered shows the frantic movement of these agents work and unsurveyed territories shows that each and every house will be worked on.
Line 33: Makes a comparison with the people of suburbia and a blizzard. It is common knowledge that one in the eye of a blizzard has little vision to anything outside that blizzard; similarly the people of suburbia are so self-absorbed that they are in a metaphorical blizzard. Or a more accurate interpretation with reference to the previously mentioned idea of real estate agents could be talking about the selfishness of real estate agents in respects to the commission they attain. Stanza Five Overview In respect to the other stanzas has abstract ideas and words which help convey this vanishing, transitory and blizzards for example, as opposed to more concrete words such as sanities, levelness, rational, avoidance and capsized (words which are closed to one interpretation). Line 34: Guessing directions could describe the direction of where the most flourishing market is at the present time. The adjective guessing shows the most flourishing market is in constant. Initially we thought they refers to architects as it uses terminology such as sketching and lines and other conventions familiar to architects. But as there is a semi-colon at the end of stanza four, it is now clear that it refers back to the real estate agents. Line 35: Words such as transitory, rigid and guessing (with reference to line 34) makes the concept unclear and inconstant which gives us a different effect also it likens the transitory lines to the inconstant or rigid nature of wooden boarders. Finally, something to note is the adjective used in line 35, transitory, as it is a synonym for the adjective momentary used in line 23 in stanza three. Line 36: We interpreted the white wall to be figurative and could represent the minds eye of the real estate agents and where they will work. Line 37: Tracing links to sketch in line 34 and is used figuratively. The use of this word means that it is not happening now but it will happen, similar to the idea portrayed in stanza three. The use of the noun suburb is used with reference to suburbia and the panic could refer to the chaotic nature of the real estate industry. Line 38: Carries on the idea from line 37 talking about a bland madness which continues the theme of chaos in respects to the real estate industry- bland possibly meaning a madness that is sensationalized. It s almost like an oxymoron, the metaphorical term snows is an extended metaphor from line 33 talking about people, real estate agents, in particular being blinded by a blizzard, snow or madness there of.
Note: Through stanza 4,5 and 6, there is a continuance of ideas/ concepts and extended metaphors used which links these ideas much like stanza one and two link by having a list of complaints. This is effective as it gives the poem continuity and helps the ideas develop thoroughly hence making it flow nicely. Biographical Information Margaret Eleanor Atwood, (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian writer. A prolific poet, novelist, literary critic, feminist and activist, she is a winner of the Booker Prize and Arthur C. Clarke Award, and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Award seven times, winning twice. Atwood is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history. [1] While she is best known for her work as a novelist, her poetry is noteworthy. Many of her poems have been inspired by myths, and fairy tales, which were an interest of hers from an early age. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Atwood is the second of three children of Carl Edmund Atwood, an entomologist, and Margaret Dorothy Killiam, a former dietitian and nutritionist. Due to her father s ongoing research in forest entomology, Atwood spent much of her childhood in the backwoods of Northern Quebec and back and forth between Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto. She did not attend school full-time until she was 11 years old. She became a voracious reader of refined literature, Dell pocketbook mysteries, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Canadian animal stories, and comic books. She attended Leaside High School in Leaside, Toronto and graduated in 1959. Atwood began writing at age six and realized she wanted to write when she was 16. In 1957, she began studying at Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Her professors included Jay Macpherson and Northrop Frye. She graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in English (honours) and minors in philosophy and French. In the fall of 1961, after winning the E.J. Pratt Medal for her privately-printed book of poems, Double Persephone, she began graduate studies at Harvard's Radcliffe College with a Woodrow Wilson fellowship. She obtained a master's degree (MA) from Radcliffe in 1962 and pursued further graduate studies at Harvard, for 2 years, but never finished because she never completed a dissertation on The English Metaphysical Romance in 1967. She has taught at the University of British Columbia (1965), Sir George Williams University in Montreal (1967-68), the University of Alberta (1969-79), York University in Toronto (1971-72), and New York University, where she was Berg professor of English.
In 1968, Atwood married Jim Polk, whom she divorced in 1973. She got together with fellow novelist Graeme Gibson soon after and moved to Alliston, Ontario, north of Toronto. In 1976 their daughter, Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson, was born. (Graeme Gibson had two sons, Matt and Grae, from a previous marriage.) Atwood returned to Toronto in 1980. She divides her time between Toronto and Pelee Island, Ontario. Atwood and her partner Graeme Gibson are members of the Green Party of Canada and strong supporters of GPC leader Elizabeth May, whom Atwood has referred to as fearless, honest, reliable and knowledgeable. Atwood has strong views on environmental issues, [2], such as suggesting that petrol-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers be banned, and has made her own home more energy efficient including not having air-conditioning - by installing awnings and skylights that open. She and her husband also use a hybrid car when they are in the city. THEMES Blizzards and snows are used as an extended metaphor for the blindness and confusion of a city that is completely bland and uniform, in which the people do not even realise how routine and structured their lives and the suburbia in general are in reality.