The Planners - Boey Kim Cheng

The Planners

a poem by Boey Kim Cheng

This is the first poem I studied from Part 4 of Songs Of Ourselves, an Anthology of Poetry in English for my Literature in English 'O' Levels. To date, this poem remains one my most beloved pieces of writing, and as you read on I hope you feel the sense of reverence and excitement that I feel when I study this poem.

Structural Analysis

This poem is written in free verse.

Thanks, Google.

Additionally, there are no indentations marks in the entire piece. These two features of the poem - free verse, no indentations - seem to rebel against the general voice of the poem, which is the voice of complaint against conformity; i.e. the entire outlay of the poem seems to be conforming. Hence we can conclude that Boey Kim Cheng wants his poem to mock the subject, what with its lack of rhyme and identifiable rhythm, as well as its evident blandness.

We can also deduce from this implied mockery that Boey Kim Cheng is a voice from the other side of a field, and that there are still people who have not yet given into the pressures of conformity enforced upon them by the Planners. (Who are the Planners? I'll get to that in a bit.)

Word by Word Analysis

Let's start from the very beginning - a very good place to start.

·         Lines 1&2:
They plan. The build. All spaces are gridded.
filled with permutations of possibilities.

Notice now that throughout the poem, the poet has capitalised the first letter of the word 'they'. This could mean (really, it's rather  natural to deduce) that he is referring to the same group of people repeatedly when he uses "They". Who are they, though? And what are they planning and building?

This is a very sharp introduction to the poem. It's evident that the poem is going to be about a group of people ("they") and that's it going to be architectural ("plan", "build", "gridded") in nature. We are also made aware of the evident power of  "them" because of the phrase "permutations of possibilities".

Do you know what permutations are? Combinations. Numerous, unending combinations. If the spaces that they grid and plan and build are filled with permutations of possibilities, that means that they are all-powerful, of great substance, maybe even God-like. But who are they? And what does the poet feel about their power?

·         Lines 3-6
The buildings are in alignment with the roads
which meet at desired points
linked by bridges all hang
in the grace of mathematics.

Here he is further describing the extent to which "they" are in control. The general idea in these four lines is one of evenness and conformity - everything makes sense. Straight lines ("in alignment with") and clean endings. Everything is so even and specific that even the mathematics of this landscape feels graceful.

Now this is a juxtaposition. Grace literally means to move freely and without restraint, yet mathematics speaks of rules and regulations and lots and lots of limits. Have "they" begun to thrive in their calculations? Or has the definition of freedom in the poet's world shrunk so far that even mathematics now seems appealing? Either way, it's a delirious scenario indeed.

These four lines help to paint an image for us. We can see through words like "buildings", "roads" and "bridges" that the poet is describing a city, a county or an estate. This helps cluing us in on who "they" might be - the planners (from the title of the poem) who were in charge of designing the layout of the landscape in question. But once again ,we don't receive any hints as to what the poet thinks of "them".

·         Lines 7-9

They build and will not stop.
Even the sea draws back

and the skies surrender.

Here we see the true extent of "their" power. The sea and skies give in to them. They have control over nature. How crazy is that?

Personification is the poetic device used by the poet in these lines. The idea of  the sea drawing back and the sky surrendering to humane forces can't be taken literally (obviously.) but are of very important metaphorical resonance. It's one thing for the planners (which we can now establish is the true identity of "They") to have control over the layout of the city - the roads, the buildings, the gracefulness of mathematics - but it's another thing for them to have free reign over nature. Surely the poet can't be happy with this?

Alternatively, the poet may also be referring to the impacts on nature that the planners have brought about. Let us consider for a moment the drama of globalisation that has been occurring in the world today - is this not similar to what the poet has described in early lines? The taming of nature. The refining of angles and correction of landscape to bend it to our needs and wants and desires - they have adverse effects, too. The most popular of these is global warming. Extinction of animal and plant species. Are we not scaring nature away? The sea has drawn back. The skies have surrendered. And we have brought this about.

Here, we also begin to have an inkling of what the poet may feel towards the planners. Consider line 7: They build and will not stop. I'm reminded immediately of a little boy sitting on the floor with his palms over his ears and his eyes tightly shut. Will. Not. Stop. They are uncontrollable, and the poet is intimidated by them. The poet is scared. The poet is frustrated and mildly annoyed at them - why won't they stop? Why must they abuse their power? How are they abusing their power? We'll find out soon enough.

·         Lines 10-12
They erase the flaws,
the blemishes of the past, knock off
useless blocks with dental dexterity.

We are introduced here to the dentistry metaphor which will be extended over the rest of this stanza.

Let us start with the enforcement of perfection. This is indicated by the two phrases: "erase the flaws" and "blemishes (knocked off)". Isn't the very definition of perfection to be without flaws? So here we understand the true objective of the planners: the achievement of perfection. They are after that idea of complete correctness and cleanness and they will eliminate everything that stands in their way.

The phrase "with dental dexterity" brings us back to the ever nostalgic dentist's chair. When we think of dentists, what do we recall? Pristine floors. Sterile equipment. (Painful check-ups...) They never leave behind any marks, much like the planners. What are the planners getting rid of, though? What is the planners' equivalent of a bad cavity?

The blemishes of the past. According to the planners, our past is not something to learn from but something to be embarrassed of. Isn't that why they are erasing the buildings of the past? Knocking them off. Cleanly. Leaving no trace behind. Perhaps this is what the poet has qualms with. This is what ticks off the poet - the mission of the planners to forget, forget, forget.

·         Lines 13-16
All gaps are plugged
with gleaming gold.
The country wears perfect rows
of shining teeth.

More of that dentistry metaphor! Lovely.

These four lines mainly reinforce the perfection-crazed characteristic of the planners. Not only have they knocked off  the old, perhaps ugly or uneven structures of the past, but they have replaced them with something almost other-worldly.

The empty spaces that the old pieces of architecture had left behind (gaps) have been filled up (plugged) with newer, more developed and standing out upgrades (gleaming gold).

The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth. The planners are the dentist, and the country is their set of decaying teeth. It is their job to fix it now. The phrase 'rows of shining teeth' probably refers to the city skyline, which is made of buildings not quite of the same size (some up, others down) zig-zagging across the sky haphazardly but, still, neatly. The word 'teeth' is an animal attribute, and when it is used in describing the city, it makes the city seem alive. Additionally, the word shining used in correlation with teeth feels like an exaggeration (buildings can't shine?) which reinforces the idea of perfection that the planners are desperately after.

Last bit: gold teeth? They look out of place, do they not? Much like the new buildings which, even though they look good in the landscape, still feet out of place and unfamiliar to the poet.

·         Lines 17-20
Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
They have the means.
They have it all so it will not hurt,
so history is new again.

I will explore in great detail the significance of Line 17 to the rest of the poem, in my next post which is an essay to the question "How Does Boey Kim Cheng convey his attitude towards the planners in his poem The Planners?"

This bunch of lines conveys heavily what Boey Kim Cheng feels towards the planners. A sense of helplessness, he is robbed of the power to respond to the changes that are being made around him.

It is a very powerful line of the poem: they have it all so it will not hurt. He sounds so defenceless and vulnerable here.

Consider the context of line 20 (so history is new again.) They have the means to erase memory, to hypnotize and completely control, and they have the means to rob away pain. And so history is new again. They have completely erased the blemishes of the past - a project previously referenced to in line 11. The planners have, in a way, rewritten history. It is a paradox in itself - how can history be new, when all that is of historical importance is a thing of the past? We are given the impression that the planners are writing their own version of history, and this is what the poet has a problem with.

More to follow about these lines in my next post - stay tuned! #StopSelfPromotion2k14

·         Lines 21-23
The piling will not stop.
The drilling goes right through
the fossils of last century.

And that's how far they are willing to dig. Through the fossils of last century. The piling will not stop - this enforces the fact that progress is so ingrained in our heads that we can't help but continue. And soon enough, anything (fossils) that connect us to the past (last century) will be gone.

·         Lines 24-27
But my heart would not bleed

poetry. Not a single drop

to stain the blueprint

of our past's tomorrow.

This is where the poet admits that even if he could, he would not interrupt with the progress made by the planners. He will not let sentimentality escape him in the form of his poetry, which he likens to blood falling onto blueprints. Blood which, evidently, leaves a stain on the plans that the planners have already prepared for the future of the country. Lastly, the last line contains the oxymoron "past's tomorrow" which exemplifies the fact that we are already living in the future.

And this stanza makes us wonder - despite the poet's qualms with the planners, perhaps he is too intimidated, or detached, or even lazy, to bother making a difference.

My next post will be an essay to the topic "How Does Boey Kim Cheng convey his attitude towards the planners in his poem The Planners?" This is a very popular question with regards to this poem, so I took a shot at answering it. Additionally, I will be analysing the poem The City Planners by Margaret Atwood in the near future. This is a poem that is heavily compared with The Planners by Boey Kim Cheng so I will write a comparative essay regarding these two, too.

Stay tuned!
BioKrys