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 dont 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.

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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 doesnt constitute the
bruise or that it is surprising that it is an injury that cant 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.

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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.

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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. Its 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.

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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 fathers 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.

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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.

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