Introduction

city planners by Margaret Atwood appeared in the 1964 collection the circle game the poems
in this collection explore the tensions that can often be found between perception and reality
i.e., what may seem harmless at first glance is often revealed on closer inspection to be dark
sad and disturbing.

The Main Part

in this poem atwoodAtwood uses a

sundaySunday car ride through a quiet and
ordered suburb to explore what she sees
as humanity's insane and ultimately
futile desireembodieddesire embodied in the work of the city
planners to impose rigid and stiflingstifling
control
not only over our own lives but also
over a landscape and an environment
which refused to be tamed
the poem comprises seven stanzas which
vary between two and twelve lines in
length
it's written in free verse which means
that it has no pre-established
rhythmical pattern or rhyme scheme
atwoodAtwood instead uses techniques such as
enchantment
paradigm
alliteration
consonants
sibilance
and assonance
to create rhythm cohesion and musicality
rather than relying on a technique such
as caesura to create midline pauses
atwoodAtwood instead chooses to modulate the
rhythm and highlight certain images
through varying line lengths
with some lines as short as three or
four syllables
which also has the effect of creating a
poem with a rather disjointed feel
and perhaps reflects the poet's own

discomfort at what she sees

the poem only comprises four sentences
in total
lines one to eight
lines nine to twelve
lines thirteen to twenty eighttwenty-eight

and lines -
note that the final sentence is not
punctuated with a full stop
conceivably suggesting that atwoodAtwood sees
our attempts to conquer nature and
nature's fighting back against these as
a vicious circle without an end
as suggested by the title of the
collection in which the poem first
appeared
comprehension of some of atwood'sAtwood’s ideas
in this poem can be tricky due to the
length of some of these sentences
particularly the sentence stretching
from lines tolines to
the poem is written in the present tense
which gives it simultaneously a sense of
immediacy
and of universality and timelessness
atwoodAtwood makes extensive use of figurative
language such as metaphor and simile
to communicate her perception that the
orderliness of the suburbs is sterile
and sinister
rather than peaceful and utopian
personification
a type of metaphor is also employed
throughout as the suburbs and everything
within them
rather than passive inanimate structures
become instead de facto deputies for the
planners
active agents of control in a constant
battle against both the forces of the
natural world
and of human nature
apart from the city planners themselves
the suburbs are noticeably devoid of
descriptions of people
for exampleexample, the power mower in line
appears to operate autonomously and to
have a mind of its own
atwoodAtwood uses words that form semantic
fields of mental illness and distress
such as sanity'
rational
hysteria
avoidance
to fixed stare
insane
panic
and madness
and physical illness such as sickness
and bruise
to convey the paradoxical sense that the
desire to impose sanity on chaos is
essentially insane
the title the city planners refers to
the group of people who are responsible
for planning out the built environment
within cities
such as zoning of residential
industrial and commercial areas
transportation and street and road
design
atwoodAtwood doesn't explicitly introduce them
in the body of the poem until nearly the
end after she's already built upbuilt-up a
dystopian picture of the suburbs for
which she feels they are responsible
the poem begins
cruising these residential sundaySunday
streets in dry august sunlight
the speaker and her unnamed companion or
companions are taking a weekend drive
through the suburbs
the verb cruising conveys the idea of
leisurely travel with little effort and
no final destination in mind
which suggests that the trip is being
taken purely for pleasure
the fact that there is dry august
sunlight suggests warmth and light
the use of the noun sundaySunday to describe
the streets isare hollow frasticfrantic
i.ei.e., this single word doesn't merely
indicate the day of the week on which
the journey is taking place
but also communicates the atmosphere of
peace and quiet that is characteristic
of this day of rest
as the poem continues it is also
possible to argue that atwoodAtwood means this
metaphorically as well as literally
in that sundaySunday seems to be a state of
mind
where an enforced sense of order and
calm reigns over the place whatever the
day of the week
note the sibilance of the z and
sounds in these lines which enhances the
sense of calm
the colon at the end of line two wherewere
we would tend to expect a comma
indicates that the speaker is going to
elaborate on her opening statement
what comes next is surprising for a
number of reasons
what offends us is the sanities
the peaceful tone is abruptly shattered
with the verb offends which communicates
upset and annoyance caused by something
disrespectful or insulting
but what it is that offends us the
sanities
is equally puzzling for one thing the
noun sanity is an uncountable noun
like happiness or dust
and as such is not usually pluralized
although we realize in subsequent lines
that atwood'sAtwood’s transforming of the word
into a countable noun is logical in the
context of the poem
it serves to introduce a discordant note
this in conjunction with the fact that
things which are sane or rational are
not usually deemed offensive
suggest the reader that things may not
be as they seem on the surface
the inclusion of another colon at the
end of the line indicates that the
speaker will use the subsequent lines to
explain what they mean
these sanities we are told are the
houses in pedantic rows the planted
sanitary trees
which assert levelness of surface like a
rebuke to the dent in our car door
the adjective pedantic describes
something or someone who is obsessively
concerned with minor details
while the trees have been deliberately
planted in pre-ordained and strictly
measured out positions
rather than having grown by themselves
and are sanitary or hygienic and clean
it appears that everything has been
planned and plotted out according to
rigid rules
nothing has been allowed to spring up
organically
and even the trees seem to have been
stripped of their individuality and
connection to nature
by being obsessively pruned and
manicured and it is this which offends
the speaker
this sterile environment asserts
levelness of surface like a rebuke to
the dent in our car door
to assert something is to state it
forcefully and confidently while a
rebuke is an expression of disapproval
atwoodAtwood employs personification to convey
how the uniformity of the line
highlights the imperfection of the
speaker's own car
and they are made to feel as though they
have been scolded for their rebellious
behaviorbehaviour
with the implication that the people who
live here are brainwashed in theirthem
conformity
the peace and quiet begins to take on a
more sinister feel as we are told that
there is no shouting here or shatter of
glass
nothing more abrupt than the rational
wine of a power mower cutting a straight
swath in the discouraged grass
abrupt noises particularly those which
are evidence either of a deviation from
perfection
or a sign of individuality
both of which are what make us human
seem to be disapproved of here
note the paradigm of the first syllables
of shouting and shatter which enhances
the sense of discord communicated in
these lines
the phrase rational wine to describe the
background noise of the power mower
not only personifies the mower serving
to further dehumanize these suburbs as
its human operator is removed
but also suggests a constant battle to
keep strictly sane and logical control
over the chaos of an ever-growing nature
as it cuts a straight swath in the
discouraged grass
note that the adjective discouraged can
have two meanings
not only does it mean that the growth of
grass is frowned upon but it can also be
interpreted as a personification of the
grass itself
that it too feels dispirited
the second stanza introduces the longest
sentence in the poem as it extends over
the next linesnext lines encompassing three
stanzas in total
the length of the sentence and atwood'sAtwood’s
punctuation mean that it is not the
easiest to understand on first reading
so i'mI’m going to start by repunctuating
it and adding an andad in order for you to
more easily access its sense
i would suggest skipping over the part
in brackets first to get the overall
meaning of the sentence
but though the driveway is neatly
sidestep hysteria by being even and the
roofs all display the same slant of
avoidance to the hot sky
certain things
give momentary access to the landscape
behind or under the future cracks in the
plaster when the houses capsized will
slide obliquely into the clay seas
gradual as glaciers that right now
nobody notices
it starts with the dependent clause of a
very complex sentence
but though the driveway is neatly
sidestep hysteria by being even
the roofs all display the same slant of
avoidance to the hot sky
once more atwoodAtwood indicates this time
through her use of but though
that all is not well in this suburban
utopia
note her use of language from the
semantic field of psychoanalysis
i.ei.e., hysteria and avoidance
which personified the driveways and the
roofs and in doing so pathologize this
desire to control and shut out nature
through the strict imposition of regular
lines
even though the planners go to these
lengths however there are certain things
which she goes on to list
that suggest all is not well in paradise
the smell of spilled oil a faint
sickness lingering in the garages
a splash of paint on bricks surprising
as a bruise
a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil
even the two-fixed stare of the wide
windows
using metaphor and simile atwoodAtwood uses
the language of illness and injury to
describe the visual evidence of the
imperfections of human life
the accidental spillage of oil is a
faint sickness lingering in the garages
and the careless splash of paint on
brick is surprising as a bruise
with the implication that perfection is
health
the meticulous looping of a plastic hose
is poised in a vicious coil
suggesting a viper ready to strike
and the wide windows have the appearance
of eyes which are unnerving in theirthem
two-fixed stare
all of which create an atmosphere which
is threatening and unsettling
note the use of hissing sibilance and
plosive alliteration which enhanceenhances the
sense of menace in these lines
it's these certain things that give
momentary access to the landscape behind
or under the future cracks in the
plaster
in other wordswords, the imperfections of
being human cannot be completely erased
and it is these which give glimpses here
and there of a natural world beneath
which will eventually break through the
suburban facade
when the houses capsized will slide
obliquely into the clay seas
gradual as glaciers that right now
nobody notices
atwoodAtwood suggests that she sees the houses
in these residential areas as ships
which will capsize and sink beneath the
waves of the clay seas as they become
rubble
although this is an apocalyptic vision
there's a certain gracefulness about it
as they will slide obliquely
or descend smoothly at an angle to theirthem
doom
a glacier is a river of ice which slowly
moves under the force of its own weight
not only does his image give a sense of
the inexorability of these natural
forces
but it also suggests that we are totally
unaware that it's going to happen
until it's too late
note the very complex sound patterning
that atwoodAtwood makes use of in these lines
the intertwined consonants of the
and l sounds encapsizeduncapsized slide obliquely
clay and glaciers
as well as the assonance of the long eye
and capsized and slide
and the alliteration of gradual and
glaciers
have a certain euphony which stands in
direct contrast to the discordant sound
patterning of the previous lines
also note the way in which the poem
structure begins to disintegrate as well
at this point with the sentence split
over three stanzas
the second and third of which are short
and enjambed making them seem fragmented
in the fifth stanza atwoodAtwood turns her
attention to the human forces behind
this desire for conformity and
uniformity
the city planners
she describes them as having the insane
faces of political conspirators
there's a certain irony in the fact that
those behind imposing these sanities on
the population are in fact themselves
insane in atwood'sAtwood’s eyes
the conspirator is another word for a
plotter or a schema and suggests that
the planners are consumed by an ideology
which is intent on controlling the live

and minds of the people by controlling

their environment
there's also an irony in the planner's
insatiable hunger to map and measure and
plot virgin lands being in itself
chaotic
with no coherent overall plan
they are scattered over unsurveyedsurveyed
territories concealed from each other
each in his own private blizzard
atwoodAtwood uses a metaphor relating to the
meteorological chaos caused by a
snowstorm here to describe the way in
which the planners are trapped in theirthem
own short-sighted worlds
unable to see what lies in front of them
either what their co-planners are up to
at the same time as them
or what awaits them in their future
the penultimate stanza describes the
planners guessing directions as they
sketch transitory lines rigid as wooden
borders on a wall in the white vanishing
air
the sense of order that they try to
impose is essentially based on guesswork
which is the opposite of having a plan
and the ultimate futility of theirthem
endeavorsendeavours isare laid bare here through the
oxymoron present in the simile of
transitory or temporary lines being
rigid as wooden borders that are
sketched on something which is
disappearing in front of their eyes
the poem ends on another oxymoron as
atwoodAtwood continuing the metaphor of a
snowstorm to communicate how the planets
are effectively in a state of blind
hysteria
describes them as tracing the panic of
suburb order in a bland madness of snows
the adjective bland is another word for
monotonous and wishy-washy and echoes
the sterility and dreariness of the
suburbs that so offends atwoodAtwood
it's also at odds with the word madness
which is anything but bland
note how the perm does not end on a full
stop
perhaps not only suggesting further
disintegration of form to evoke the
planner's own disintegrating mental
state
but alsoalso, perhaps to indicate the
speaker's belief that mankind's desire
to tame the untameable is a never-edingending
and ultimately futile project