english lit

• cruising' these residential sunday streets in dry august sunlight:


  cruising = relaxed, at ease

  this contradicts the semantic field of insanity evinced later in the poem

  ironic

  you can't cruise through this suburb: it's unwelcoming
• what offends us is the sanities


  juxtaposition of semantic fields: vexation and logic

  - speaker is not unsettled by mere chaos/disorder; but rather the very qualities associated with order, reason and rationality

  this creates a sense of irony: implying the speaker sees the strict conformity and uniformity of the suburban environment as oppressive/asphyxiating
• the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees


  stresses the suburban environment encroaches on speaker's personal freedom: frightened of the bourgeoisie

  no sense of community: town fails to foster individuality/diversity of thought

  pedantic rows/ planted sanitary trees

  plosive ps: reflect plasticisation of nature, which is supposed to be free-flowing
• assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the

  dent in our car

  door

  assert levelness of surface

  again, the suburb infringes on freedom of expression with forceful equality

  too equal; perfection to a fault

  like a rebuke to the dent in our car door

  even the smallest mistakes require correction; speaker requires correction

  speaker and her family are at odds with the town's prevailing order

  dent... door...

  dental d's are inhospitable
• no shouting here, or shatter of glass;


  further emphasises the controlled, subdues atmosphere of the suburban neighbourhood
• nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of a power mower cutting a straight swath


  rational whine

  personification of mower evinces that it is inimical to the lifestyle it's forced into

  however, it is fundamentally brought into alignment with its sterile environment

  straight swath:

  almost eerily equal/symmetrical
• shatter of glass / cutting a straight swath


  semantic field of injury

  veiled threat: if one doesn't comply, one is punished

  abuse/violence theme hands in the air latently
• splash of paint on brick (surprising as a bruise)


  pressing hard consonant sounds together in a cacophonous jingle:

  harsh, vicious sonic texture to describe bruising

  life's messy edges can be sanded away
• display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky


  slant of avoidance is protest against 'perfect', docile, planted, sanitary nature of suburb

  leisureliness is abjured (renounced)

  town is in opposition to natural will
• on brick surprising as a bruise


  simile: implies imperfection deserves punishment

  blemish on the house spoils its homogeneity
• the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria

  accentuates how mania is scattered betweeen adherence to uniform design
• a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil


  biblical allusion to serpent in garden of eden:

  planners attempted to manufacture an eden

  snake alludes to the power of the devil

  planners attempted eden, but enforced a hell
• too-fixed stare of the wide windows

  perpetually watching/judging/observing/threatening
• ?when the houses, capsized, will slide... into the clay seas

  capsized:

  imposing structures are revealed to be fundamentally feeble
• the houses... will slide obliquely into the clay seas


  oblique: off-centre

  reflects the facade fading as weakness of planners' structure is revealed

  slantedness antithetical to previous emphasised straightness
• insane faces of political conspirators... tracing the panic of suburb order


  semantic field of mania

  planners inherently unfit for their jobs

  motivated by insecurity + lust for control, NOT symbols of poise: characterised by hubris and arrogance
• faces of political conspirators are scattered over unsurveyed territories


  ironic humour

  even in this hypothetical future, the planners still seek out development opportunities
• tracing the panic of suburb order in a bland madness of snows


  bland' madness — oxymoron

  bland semantic field: flat, vanilla

  madness semantic field: chaos, disorder

  this stresses the futility of the planners' existence + projects

  snows:

  plain, empty: the result of the maniacal nature of the planners
• what does the rhythm/ rhyme scheme prove


  no rhythm or rhyme scheme

  this reflects how the planners' attempts to impose order are always superseded by the power of natural disorder

  poetic reflection of nature's characteristic, beautiful disorder + by extension, a reflection of the planners' pitiful failures
• what does the form prove


  poem written in dissonant free verse without regular pattern (enjambment present)

  draws attention to the unpredictability of nature, in contrast with the stiflingly rigid gridded nature of the suburb:
• what does the structure prove


  consists of 7 stanzas of varying lengths: last stanza is the shortest

  this reflects the chaotic, disjointed nature of the suburban environment the author critiques

  eventually, this will all disintegrate into the 'clay seas' and fizzle out into nothingness
• contextual info


  margaret atwood's father was an entomologist, which gave her a deep appreciation for nature

  poem was in response to the increase in standardised neighbourhoods throughout the 20th century

  atwood critiques these by suggesting that man-made structures are fragile and not planned thoroughly enough to withstand nature's force
• summary of poem


  gridded, orderly blueprints of the town are designed by a sinister cabal of planners

  
  

  the built environment is superficially perfect, but inimical to warmth and community feeling

  
  

  towards the end, a time-skip shifts the reader forward to an apocalyptic future where the ice age returns — yet the planners still pursue their mad quest for control
• example summary quotes


  'panic of suburb order'/ 'houses in pedantic rows' / 'the planted sanitary trees'/ 'slant of avoidance
• poem summary

  planners' obsession with order and regimentation turns a utopia into a dystopia

  convenience and efficiency are prized over human relationships and spontaneity

  planners stand for superficiality and bland efficiency: our poet has no place in this city's grand designs
• they plan / they build / they erase the flaws

  they: murky, anonymous, sinister plural pronoun

  dichotomy between poet and planners

  'us vs them'

  reader made fearful of the power of the ambiguous planners
• plan / spaces / points

  semantic field of geometry/mathematics

  planners seem more mechanical/algorithmic than human
• possibilities / desired / grace

  initially positive semantic field: all is working as intended

  much thought has been given to design, both for aesthetics and functionality
• they plan. they build.

  caesurae

  the clunking and chugging of manufacturing is replicated in the poem's very sounds
• desired points / linked by bridges

  heavy enjambment

  relentless forward progression is imitated in the march of the lines
• they build and will not stop

  imperative: signifies their ever-enthralling ambition
• even the sea draws back, and the skies surrender

  semantic field of defeat

  as if defeated in battle, retreating from unstoppable onslaught of concrete + steel
• dental dexterity / shining teeth

  extended dental analogy

  planners care only about the cosmetic appearance (veneer of order) of the city rather than true wealth

  analogy is malign: planners are trying to surgically remove 'rotten' old edifices for new, unsettlingly perfect ones
• dental... plugged, gleaming gold

  alliteration: guttural gs and dental d's

  we hear the speaker's asperity towards the planners
• anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis

  soporific, placated semantic field

  inhabitants lulled into believing no damage has been done in its city's creation

  citizens' memories reduced to a withered short-term loop

  this validates planners due to lack of resistance

  mind, memory and body all dulled

  tricolon underscores planners' oppressiveness
• but my heart would not bleed poetry

  shift to personal pronouns

  even if poet martyred himself to protect the city, the efficient machine of the planners would continue to plough through its remains
• will not stop / will not stop / my heart would not bleed

  planners' ceaseless efforts are epistrophically emphasised
• paragraph idea quotes: mathematical dominance

  desired / grace → sea draws back / surrender

  positive semantic field ('desired / grace') disintegrates into semantic field of nature's loss ('sea draws back' / 'seas surrender')

  hints at totalitarian ulterior motive for planners

  enjambment

  reflects ever-continuing nature of planners as they continue digging up the city

  'in the grace of mathematics'

  metaphor serves as an outright admission of planners' piety to mathematics as their model that they try and implement in their own city

  plan / spaces / points

  already analysed
• paragraph idea quotes: superficial world

  'all gaps are plugged with gleaming gold'

  dental imagery: done before

  repeated dental + guttural alliteration

  done before

  anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis

  drilling goes right through the fossils of last century

  rich history posed as as ancient as fossils: unwanted and irrelevant to planners' tunnel vision
• paragraph idea quotes: infinite growth

  the piling will not stop / the drilling goes right through

  anaphora: accentuates limitlessness of planners' expansion

  'they plan. they build'

  short sentences: planners' ambitions in endless motion

  heart would not bleed a single drop to stain the 'blueprint of our past's tomorrow'

  even if speaker were to die the machine would continue to whirl

  not a single drop

  emphasises planners' ceaseless efforts to expand to the stars: vision contains no place for disruptive poets

  my heart would not bleed poetry.

  caesura: only death can pause planners' expansion