Analysis: The Planners by Boey Kim Cheng

STRUCTURE:

• 3 stanzas of unequal length. 9 verses, 14 verses, 4 verses.
• No rhyme scheme
• variation of verse lengths.
• An irregular structure that reflects a disliking of all this order and flawless perfectionist world.

STANZA 1

• Opening on short, to the point sentences “They plan. They build.” The word they creates a great distance between author+ reader and the planners. They are set apart, and there actions seem to lack completely in originality, as reflected by the simplistic structure of the sentences (subject + verb). Furthermore this concise form make the sentences resound and give them a finality. There is no denying the power of the planners; “They plan. They build. ” and we can do nothing about that.
• The planners are not given an identity, they appear as one unified group of people that hold all the power. This gives them the strength of groups and they can not be combatted, because how can you fight against people without identity. You can only fight if you know who you are fighting against.
• “All spaces are gridded”. They seem to be everywhere, “all spaces”, there is no place that escapes them, they control everything. The word “gridded” implies a tightly planned area, geometrically arranged, without any eccentricities.
• Lexical field of mathematics: “gridded”, “alignment”, “mathematics”, “points”. Everything is arranged mathematically, art has nothing to do with it, it is a strictly logical organisation.
• Lexical  field of building “plan”, “build”, “buildings”, “roads”,”bridges”. The omnipresence of words linked to building give the planners even more power, they control everything, everywhere, they even enter in poetry.
• “all hang/ in the grace of mathematics”. The word “grace” implies both beauty and a kind of divine power, that here is awarded to mathematics. Beauty is pushed away, replaced by mathematics, the planners have the divine power.
• “They build and will not stop”. Nothing has the power to stop the planners, it is a hopeless battle. There is a certainty about this sentence that leaves out any hope, it is conveyed by the verb “will”.
• “Even the sea draws back/ and the skies surrender”. Even nature is conquered by the planners. The towers conquer the sky and the sea is disgusted by civilisation and draws back. This shows both that even nature can do nothing, and the disapproval of nature of these planners.

STANZA 2

• “They erase the flaws,/ the blemishes of the past”. Flaws are negative and erasing them could therefore be seen as a positive thing to do. However, the poet here attempts to show that it is those little flaws that are the reason the town is itself and has character. The author criticises the fact they destroy the past and attempt to rewrite history. They have the power to make things disappear, so people might forget about the past of their town because of that, they will not remember what has been destroyed.
• The planners are compared to dentists. This is not a flattering image, especially it is common for many people to dislike dentists.
• lexical field of dentistry: “dental dexterity” “plugged” “gleaming gold”they are fake and even though they are shiny they are not as good as the original, “perfect rows/ of shining teeth”all the buildings are made identical, boring sameness, “anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis”(triplet: they are powerful, can affect memory) they will make people forget about their own history through these means.They destroy buildings and eventually people stop remembering. Just like some people say you die twice:once physically and once when no one remembers you. This is the same concept, they destroy and eventually, over time, they are forgotten.  “drilling”.
• “history is new again”, they rewrite history.
• Anaphora of “They have”, gives a finality about what has happened, hopelessness.
• “it will not hurt”. Its practically an order to have no pain, you are not allowed to feel pain, which is part of the natural process of recovering from a loss.
• “The drilling goes right through/ the fossils of last century”. They are tearing down history, they do not care about the past.

STANZA 3:

• “But my heart would not bleed a single drop of poetry”. The heart represents love, bleeding represents pain and poetry is inspiration.The author cannot get inspiration from a place as unoriginal that stops from morning (he is rebelling by feeling pain). Sadness;
• “past’s tomorrow” possible present.

For additional help go on these sites:

Click to access the-planners.pdf

The Planners – Boey Kim Cheng