The City Planners: Analysis and Poetic Devices

Margaret Atwood

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Line-By-Line Analysis and Literary Devices of The City Planners

Cruising these residential Sunday
streets in dry August sunlight:

Cruising: driving around with no clear destination (has a satiric undertone as it implies that the residential streets on a summer day are free of any activity)

residential: occupied by private houses (should be bustling with life)

dry August: Little or no rain (favorable for outdoor activities)

The first two lines create a false sense of tranquility/serenity. It is a sunny Sunday, yet the residential area is eerily empty.

what offends us is
the sanities:

offends: annoyed; displeased

sanities: having a healthy mind/ practicality/ rationality (building similar houses to reduce the cost of production and thus profit more)

The serenity is interrupted when the speaker states that the reason for annoyance is the unusually well-planned suburb. Sanity in the poem is associated with everything that is in order, pre-planned, and in control.

the houses in pedantic rows, the planted
sanitary trees, assert
levelness of surface like a rebuke
to the dent in our car door.

pedantic: overtly concerned with minute details while not caring enough about understanding or appreciating a subject (the planners are preoccupied with putting everything in order by repressing, trimming, and clipping while all along ignoring important environmental issues)

sanitary trees: trees are artificially planted and shaped by cutting or logging thus preventing the process of natural regeneration of trees (molding nature for uniformity)

sanities and sanitary are quasi homophonic linking the idea of how the rationality of the planners results in suppressing nature.

rebuke: expressing sharp disapproval or criticism (no place for spontaneity)

The speaker elucidates why the serenity and order of the place bothered her. The entire suburb has been designed and created by the planners in a way that disregards the spontaneity of life. The homogenous buildings are set out evenly in rows, and even the plants are planted, trimmed, and pruned to give similar appearance and height. It is astounding to the speaker how even nature can be molded to perfection. Therefore, the speaker sarcastically comments on how the appropriate height of each tree seems to reproach the dent in the door of the car (a lifeless object).

No shouting here, or
shatter of glass; nothing more abrupt
than the rational whine of a power mower
cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.

No shouting here: imperative

straight swath: a row of cut grass by mowing machine (alliteration)

whine: High-pitched unpleasant sound.

rational whine: an oxymoron.

discouraged grass: personification

The other reason for the speaker’s annoyance is the absence of sound. It is a holiday yet there are no children playing in this residential area. There are no human activities whatsoever; no image of human companionship, intimacy, or warmth. The only noise is that of the power mower. The “Whine” has been sarcastically described as “rational” as a suburb where roads, buildings, and trees are in order, there the only noise that seems logical is that of the power mower. The grass that grows everywhere does not flourish here as they are chopped to maintain neatness.

But though the driveways neatly
sidestep hysteria
by being even, the roofs all display
the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky,
certain things:

But: Links stanza 2 with stanza 1. This stanza states how man has tried his best to tame nature and create a sense of familiarity by making everything identical yet not everything can be controlled.

driveways neatly sidestep hysteria: personification. The driveways are flat as well as uniform. They seem to have a mind of their own as they methodically avoid being unrestrained or uncontrolled i.e., even the driveways are sane. This refers back to the first stanza where the poet expressed how she disliked the “sanities”.

avoidance to the hot sky: the houses have sloped roofs to keep the heat off.

The colon after certain things indicates that the speaker has taken note of a few things that do not comply with the predetermined order of the place.

the smell of spilled oil a faint
sickness lingering in the garages,
a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,
a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil;

the smell of spilled oil: olfactory imagery.

surprising as a bruise: simile

a splash of paint on brick: visual imagery.

plastic hose poised in a vicious coil: visual imagery, metaphor

In the next four lines, she lists the things that are not part of the pre-defined order of things. These commonplace things: “the smell of spilled oil”, “a splash of paint” and “a plastic hose” are described in an adverse manner; the pungent odor of oil in the garages is associated with sickness that persists, the stain of paint is compared to an injury, the plastic hose is a venomous snake ready to strike. The use of sibilance (/s/ sound) in the above lines create a sense of menace to the superficial “sanity” of the suburb. It almost mimics the “hissing” of a snake ready to strike.

even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows

give momentary access to
the landscape behind or under
the future cracks in the plaster

wide windows: alliteration. Might be the metaphor for the vision or perspective that nature is waiting behind the buildings

too-fixed stare of the wide windows: personification.

future cracks: time is a force that subjects everything to decay. The speaker has a vision when the buildings have developed cracks.

The “Wide-windows” have been personified as they are gazing at the landscape behind the building. However, the gaze is termed as “too-fixed” or vacant as it overlooks landscapes i.e., nature which has been modified by human beings or city planners. The stare lacks the joy of experiencing the vitality of nature. The windows also become the metaphor for the speaker’s vision of a future when the buildings will develop cracks from the ravages of time and weather.

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

capsized: overturned in the water. It is a metaphor as the houses are compared to a boat or a ship rolling on its side or upside down.

clay seas: a metaphor for a heap of rubble.

gradual as glaciers: simile. The houses are likened to glaciers. The process of melting of glaciers is slow but inevitable due to global warming similarly the buildings slowly turn into a heap of rubble.

These three lines relate to the futility of the city planners’ efforts to be in control of nature and human lives by providing a pre-designed framework for the suburb. The buildings collapse due to the passage of time as well as from weather-related issues. The speaker uses the word “capsize” to compare the buildings to ships or boats gradually sinking into the water. The entire process is again a reminder of glaciers that gradually melt into the water due to global warming. Though everybody is aware of the adverse changes in our environment due to human activities yet they are strangely oblivious. They continue to aggravate the problem until nature strikes back and wins against civilization.

That is where the City Planners
with the insane faces of political conspirators
are scattered over unsurveyed
territories, concealed from each other,
each in his own private blizzard;

the City Planners: capital letters as they have assumed Godlike stature.

insane faces of political conspirators: metaphor. The city planners are compared to the political figures who are delusional about their importance and worth and exploit people for their own gain.

private blizzard: ignorant and confused

The city planners begin their work of measuring and analyzing the topography for planning and developing residential suburbs in “unsurveyed territories”. The use of the word “territories” seems to suggest that these “unsurveyed” areas are ruled by untamed and unpolluted nature. As they create the plans for the suburbs, build the structures, and mold nature, the planners seem to develop God complex. Ironically the planners who are credited for creating “sanities” in the suburbs are described as possessing “the insane faces”. The folly of trying to repress and shape nature, build similar houses for profit, and be responsible for creating an ambiance of suppression and alienation is manifested in their facial features which bear semblance with “insane” political figures. The city planners as well as the political figures live in a state of denial and fail to acknowledge humanity’s plight. The city planners are themselves alienated from each other by their greed and pride and the chaos they have created in the environment, here symbolized by the blizzard.

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

transitory lines rigid as wooden borders: simile.

The blizzard creates a surrealistic ambiance. The city planners have taken up the mammoth job of creating space for humankind but they are absolutely clueless about how to build a domain where humans and nature can co-habit. Thus, all the plans and layouts are transitory and they disappear in the snowstorm.

tracing the panic of suburb
order in a bland madness of snows

bland madness: an oxymoron. Bland is about being orderly, tedious, and monotonous while madness is disorder, turmoil, and chaos.

However, the conceited planners blinded by their greed and pride refuse to rethink as their plans are as ‘rigid’ as “wooden borders/on a wall”. They refuse to acknowledge the ecological consequences and continue creating plans that reflect minimum thinking and myopic focus. The silent and monotonous snowfall gradually erases these plans that are damaging to one’s mental constitution. The poem does not end with a period which may suggest that it is a looped process. The city planners will eventually build another suburb while nature will again reclaim the site.

Resources you might be interested in:

PPT: https://hbhs12e1english.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/the-city-planners.pdf

https://kisswriters.com/summary-and-analysis-of-margret-atwoods-the-city-planners-igcse-gcse/: The City Planners: Analysis and Poetic Devices

https://poemanalysis.com/margaret-atwood/the-city-planners

https://poetryprof.com/the-city-planners/: The City Planners: Analysis and Poetic Devices