Elements In 'The City Planner And The Planners'

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The City Planners and The Planners are two poems that depict the theme of perfection through various stylistic devices. This essay will aim to delineate the themes used by highlighting the structure and literary devices used.
From the very title “The City Planners” the readers already predict the uniformity and organisation that will arise throughout the poem. The article “The” depicts a sense of perfection which portrays the theme of perfection. The common noun “City” suggests an idea of structure and regularity. This propels the readers into a world of organisation where things have been pre-planned for an effect of perfection. The world of order is maintained through the noun “Planners”, rendering the effect of perfection.
The irregular rhyme scheme permits Atwood to express herself without any boundaries; highlighting the drastic difference between the content and structure; where one speaks about perfection and the other opposes it. This is further emphasized through the irregularity implying that Atwood rebels against this order.
With the impactful first line “What offends us is- the sanities:” the pronoun “us” refers to the people who have the same beliefs as Atwood. “Sanities” denotes their mental health implying how urbane and uniform the suburbia is. The enjambment used allows readers to pause and reflect on how it offended her. Atwood makes use of visual imagery in the line “Houses in pedantic rows,” Stating that the houses are aligned perfectly to each centimetre