The Planners Summary & Analysis
by Kim Cheng Boey

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  • “The Planners” Introduction

    • Singaporean-Australian poet Boey Kim Cheng's "The Planners" suggests that ceaseless expansion and development may cost a country its very heart and soul. The poem's speaker, disillusioned with the surface perfection and uniformity of modern "mathematical" urban development, suggests that progress isn't always a good thing: growth has both human and natural costs. The poem first appeared in Boey's 1992 collection Another Place.

  • “The Planners” Summary

    • The speaker describes the way that the people in charge of an unnamed country's development put up carefully designed buildings until every square inch of land is carefully mapped out, every possible arrangement considered. Every building is lined up neatly beside a street, and those streets are designed so that they overlap at precise spots. All these roads and buildings are connected by meticulously planned bridges. The urban planners just keep on building. Meanwhile, the speaker says, the ocean pulls away from the shore and the heavens give up completely.

      These people, the speaker goes on, remove all the little flaws that history has left behind, destroying anything that isn't perfect as neatly as a dentist pulls teeth. They fill the holes with sparkling, ritzy new buildings, making the country seem to have an immaculate smile. The speaker compares all this shiny perfection to being medicated into numbness, or losing one's memory, or being spellbound, and adds that the people in charge of designing the country have the resources to make this process of forgetting so painless that the citizens will feel like the past never happened. All this construction cuts through the remains of what once existed on this land.

      All this progress might look shiny and perfect, the speaker concludes, but it doesn't have any real soul or art, no red blood that would allow the speaker to write poetry about it. The speaker can't feel any emotion in the planner's perfectly calculated plans for the future.

  • “The Planners” Themes

    • Theme The Cost of Modernity

      The Cost of Modernity

      “The Planners” presents a bleak view of modernization. The “Planners” of the poem’s title ceaselessly build up an unnamed country (likely inspired by Boey’s native Singapore) with mathematical precision, eliminating all marks of human imperfection in the process. Though these designs are technically “perfect,” the speaker finds such rigid conformity disturbing; in the process of making everything sleeker and more efficient, these planners have effectively erased the country’s past and, with it, the inhabitants’ sense of who they are. The cost of all these gleaming skyscrapers and hanging bridges, the poem implies, is the country’s very soul.

      On the surface, it would seem that technological improvements are a good thing and that the country is being enriched by all this planning. The speaker says that “all spaces are [...] filled with permutations of possibilities,” implying that the people in charge of updating the “buildings” and “roads” have considered every conceivable option and have chosen the one with the most potential. The speaker also says that “buildings are in alignment with the roads,” and that the “roads [...] meet at desired points.” In other words, everything is designed impeccably; not a single thing is out of place.

      But there’s something about all this modernization that’s making the speaker uneasy; it’s all too seamless and controlled, ruthlessly stripped of humanity. The speaker says that this new world comes together “in the grace of mathematics.” In other words, the country’s progress is a result of coldly precise calculations rather than organic growth. And while the “Planners” have “erase[d] the flaws” and “blemishes of the past,” without these the country feels artificial, like a sculpted “row” of “perfect[ly]” glimmering “teeth.”

      Rather than being unique and individual, that is, these changes have an unnatural and unsettling uniformity—one that bears no marks of the human beings who have long lived there. Indeed, it’s not just that the country looks different; these rapid, coldly mechanical changes are obliterating the country’s history. The planners drill “right through / the fossils of the last century,” the speaker says, carelessly destroying the past and with it the foundations of residents’ identity.

      This process should be painful: the planners’ “dental dexterity” evokes not only the surgical precision of a dentist removing an unsightly tooth, but also the sterility and discomfort linked with dentist visits. Yet the speaker implies that the planners have “the means”—money, propaganda, and so forth—to hypnotize residents into thinking that is all just inevitable progress. The country is like a smile in which “[a]ll gaps are plugged / with gleaming gold,” implying that the promise of luxury and comfort work like an anesthetic, numbing people to their pain. In erasing the past, the planners have also effectively rewritten history, creating a collective “amnesia” so that people don’t even feel the loss of their old ways of life.

      And while the speaker remains skeptical about these “blueprints” for never-ending modernization, they, too, are ultimately unable to fully grieve the loss of their country’s “past”—everything is changing far too quickly. The speaker says their “heart would not bleed / poetry. Not a single drop.” This implies that the cost of all this rapid, profit-driven “improvement” is the loss of human feeling. Eventually, such “progress” will dull humanity’s ability to feel and make meaning out of its existence, causing its very “heart” to wither.

      Where this theme appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-27
    • Theme Human Progress vs. Nature

      Human Progress vs. Nature

      In addition to illustrating the human cost of urbanization, “The Planners” also portrays the toll that this process takes on the earth itself. In their endless, unchecked quest for perfection, profit, and efficiency, the poem's "planners" are destroying the natural world.

      The poem shows the way human beings are at odds with their environment, trying to control and “perfect” it rather than letting it be. Instead of allowing natural spaces to just exist as they have throughout most of history, humans “grid[]” them and “fill[]” them with “permutations of possibilities.” People feel the need to exert control over every inch of land in order to make it into something useful and/or profitable.

      What’s more, the speaker emphasizes that there’s no end to this ceaseless planning: human beings “build and will not stop." In the face of such relentless urbanization, nature itself seems to simply give up: the ocean “draws back” and “the skies surrender.” Literally, this likely refers to the way that people push back shorelines for new construction, erect skyscrapers, fly in airplanes, create pollution, etc. But in personifying nature, the poem emphasizes that all this so-called progress is in direct confrontation with the earth.

      And as nature seems to disappear in every direction, “[t]he drilling goes right through / the fossils of last century.” On the one hand, this refers to the way that modernization erases humanity’s past. But this also might subtly allude to humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, which has directly contributed to climate change. In any case, the poem links human progress with destruction on a personal and global scale.

      Where this theme appears in the poem:
      • Lines 7-9
      • Lines 21-23
  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Planners”

    • Lines 1-2

      They plan. They ...
      ... permutations of possibilities.

      "The Planners" begins with the speaker describing the city planners in charge of developing an unnamed country. The speaker says,

      They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded,

      Anaphora on the word "They" immediately emphasizes the importance of these unseen planners. The speaker doesn't say who "they" are exactly, only that they are out there "gridd[ing]" the country—that is, breaking it up into uniform squares. Whoever they are, they treat the speaker's homeland like a math problem, an equation to be solved through careful calculations.

      The caesurae created by the periods after "plan" and "build" give the poem a methodical feeling right off the bat. The stop-and-start pace, combined with technical language such as "gridded," mimics the planners' unemotional, orderly approach to their developments. Already, the reader gets the sense that the speaker might not be too excited about these planners' visions of order and perfection.

      Even their many "permutations of possibilities"—that is, all the different versions of new cities they envision—seem a little sinister. These words suggest that the planners are determined to make the most of every inch of land. There's no room for free space or organic growth in their vision of the speaker's country.

    • Lines 3-6

      The buildings are ...
      ... grace of mathematics.

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    • Lines 7-9

      They build and ...
      ... the skies surrender.

    • Lines 10-14

      They erase the ...
      ... with gleaming gold.

    • Lines 15-17

      The country wears ...
      ... Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.

    • Lines 18-23

      They have the ...
      ... of last century.

    • Lines 24-27

      But my heart ...
      ... our past’s tomorrow.

  • “The Planners” Symbols

    • Symbol Gold

      Gold

      Gold is very often used as a symbol for wealth and prosperity, and in this poem it's no different. The speaker uses a metaphor to compare a "country" to a "row[]" of "teeth," saying that "[a]ll gaps are plugged / with gleaming gold." In other words, the country's old buildings are being torn out and rebuilt like rotten teeth replaced with gold fillings—that is, with something more beautiful, something which makes the country appear more glamorous.

      At the same time, the idea that the country is being "plugged" with gold suggests that "gold" is being used to shut the populace up. This speaks to the way that people in power are able to do what they want without necessarily having ordinary people on board. With enough money, the image of gold suggests, powerful people can change the face of a country on a whim.

      Where this symbol appears in the poem:
      • Lines 13-14: “All gaps are plugged / with gleaming gold.”
  • “The Planners” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Anaphora

      The poem uses anaphora to evoke the sheer relentlessness of the planners of the poem's title. The speaker begins the poem with anaphora that calls attention to these people's presence: "They plan. They build," the speaker says, the repetition of the word "They" emphasizing the power that these planners have. The speaker then uses parallel phrasing in lines 7 and 10:

      They build and will not stop.
      [...]
      They erase the flaws,

      While spaced far enough apart that these lines might not sound like true anaphora, the return to the repetitive "They [verb]" formula reflects the idea that the planners "will not stop." "They" keep appearing in the poem, taking over its structure, in a way that mirrors their hold on the city itself.

      Then, in lines 18-19, the poem uses anaphora to once again highlight the importance and relentlessness of these nameless planners:

      They have the means.
      They have it all so it will not hurt,

      And in lines 21-22, the anaphora of the word "The," plus a return to the phrase "will not stop," creates a sense of building momentum:

      The piling will not stop.
      The drilling goes right through

      The country will only continue on its path of endless self-improvement.

      Where anaphora appears in the poem:
      • Line 1: “They,” “They”
      • Line 7: “They”
      • Line 10: “They”
      • Line 18: “They have”
      • Line 19: “They have”
      • Line 21: “The”
      • Line 22: “The”
    • Alliteration

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      Where alliteration appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “permutations,” “possibilities”
      • Line 8: “sea”
      • Line 9: “skies,” “surrender”
      • Line 12: “dental,” “dexterity”
      • Line 13: “gaps”
      • Line 14: “gleaming,” “gold”
      • Line 17: “Anaesthesia,” “amnesia”
      • Line 19: “hurt”
      • Line 20: “history”
    • Asyndeton

      Where asyndeton appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-2: “All spaces are gridded, / filled with permutations of possibilities.”
      • Lines 10-12: “They erase the flaws, / the blemishes of the past, knock off / useless blocks with dental dexterity.”
      • Line 17: “Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.”
      • Lines 19-20: “They have it all so it will not hurt, / so history is new again.”
    • Personification

      Where personification appears in the poem:
      • Lines 8-9: “Even the sea draws back / and the skies surrender.”
      • Lines 15-16: “The country wears perfect rows / of shining teeth.”
    • Metaphor

      Where metaphor appears in the poem:
      • Line 9: “the skies surrender.”
      • Lines 10-16: “They erase the flaws, / the blemishes of the past, knock off / useless blocks with dental dexterity. / All gaps are plugged / with gleaming gold. / The country wears perfect rows / of shining teeth.”
      • Lines 24-27: “But my heart would not bleed / poetry. Not a single drop / to stain the blueprint / of our past’s tomorrow.”
    • Enjambment

      Where enjambment appears in the poem:
      • Lines 3-4: “roads / which”
      • Lines 4-5: “points / linked”
      • Lines 5-6: “hang / in”
      • Lines 8-9: “back / and”
      • Lines 11-12: “off / useless”
      • Lines 13-14: “plugged / with”
      • Lines 15-16: “rows / of”
      • Lines 22-23: “through / the”
      • Lines 24-25: “bleed / poetry”
      • Lines 25-26: “drop / to”
      • Lines 26-27: “blueprint / of”
    • Caesura

      Where caesura appears in the poem:
      • Line 1: “plan. They,” “build. All”
      • Line 11: “past, knock”
      • Line 17: “Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.”
      • Line 25: “poetry. Not”
  • “The Planners” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Gridded
    • Permutations
    • Alignment
    • Desired points
    • Blemishes
    • Dental dexterity
    • Plugged
    • Gleaming
    • Amnesia
    • Anaesthesia
    • Hypnosis
    • The means
    • Piling
    • Blueprint
    Gridded
    • (Location in poem: Line 1: “All spaces are gridded,”)

      Divided in a pattern of equal, parallel, criss-crossed roads.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Planners”

    • Form

      "The Planners" is a free verse poem built from three stanzas of varying lengths. Its 27 lines are often short and clipped, evoking the stifling, rigid new landscape the speaker is describing. The poem's halting rhythms and frequent enjambments might also reflect the poem's themes, mimicking the ways in which perfectionistic new development can cut people off from emotion and humanity.

    • Meter

      The poem is written in free verse, meaning it does not use a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Even though this is the norm for much contemporary poetry, it's a little bit surprising that a poem describing a place that has been perfected by "the grace of mathematics" doesn't use some sort of strict rhythm. Perhaps the lack of meter here expresses the speaker's longing for the human "blemishes" of a city with history: by choosing irregular free verse, the speaker might be resisting the planners' perfectionism.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      This free verse poem does not use a rhyme scheme. The lack of rhyme here might reflect the poem's rejection of the rigidly "gridded" layout of the newly redeveloped country, highlighting the speaker's resistance to artificial planning and order.

  • “The Planners” Speaker

    • The poem's speaker is an enemy of the unnamed "[p]lanners" who are changing the speaker's "country" into something unrecognizable. The speaker is clearly much more interested in the "flaws" and "blemishes of the past" than they are in new, "gleaming" skyscrapers. They think that their country's "history" matters, and that "eras[ing]" said history is bad for both people and the planet.

      It's safe to say that the poem's speaker overlaps with Boey in significant ways. Boey left his native Singapore in 1997, disgusted with the country's politics and its rapid, profit-driven urbanization. In such a landscape, the poem hints, "poetry" might well feel out of the question.

  • “The Planners” Setting

    • "The Planners" is set in a country undergoing rapid urbanization (most likely based on Boey's native Singapore). The speaker notes that, in this country, "[a]ll spaces are gridded," and "the roads" and "bridges all hang" in perfect "grace." This grace, however, isn't elegant or inspiring. Instead, it is rigidly "mathematic[al]": technically flawless, but soulless, too. There is something clinical and even sinister about the way the country's new buildings resemble "perfect rows / of shining teeth."

      The poem's lack of specificity about where it is set suggests that all this "building," "piling," and "drilling" is resulting in a dangerously bland place. Modernity is robbing this country of its unique character, making it just like any other shiny modern city.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “The Planners”

      Literary Context

      Boey Kim Cheng was born in Singapore in 1965, the year that the country became an independent republic. (Note that "Boey" is the poet's family name, not his given name; as a Chinese surname, it is written first.) At the age of 32, frustrated with the ways in which his country was changing, Boey emigrated to Australia. Displacement became a major theme in Boey's work: he first felt there was no place for him as a poet in Singapore, then felt like an outsider in his adopted country.

      This sense of alienation has informed not only Boey's own writing, but also the ways in which he has gone on to support other writers. He has edited two collections of poetry from the Asian diaspora, and he co-founded Mascara Literary Review, the first Australian journal for Asian-Australian writers.

      Boey wrote his first poems as a young man, during a mandatory period of service in the Singapore Armed Forces. He was initially inspired by writers like John Keats, T.S. Eliot, and Rainier Maria Rilke. After he moved to Australia, he found himself seeking out Asian poets, such as Singaporean poet Arthur Yap and Malaysian-Australian poet Ee Tiang Hong. He also returned to the great Chinese poets of the Tang dynasty, whose work he had been taught as a young child—particularly Du Fu, who he would go on to write about in Gull Between Heaven and Earth, a fictionalized biography.

      Historical Context

      Since the 1950s, Singapore's population has grown swiftly, expanding from one million people in 1950 to nearly six million in 2021. During this period, Singapore has invested heavily in its infrastructure: things like the "buildings," "roads," and "bridges" the speaker mentions in the poem, but also public transport, water and electricity, public housing, schools, and hospitals. While the speaker of this poem is skeptical of all this rapid (and rigid) planning, many see Singapore's development into an urbanized country as a success story.

      That being said, what the speaker is really grieving is the way that all these improvements might disconnect Singaporeans from their history, their understanding of who they are as a people. An example of this tension between past and present can be found in a recent debate over the reconstruction of Bukit Brown cemetery into new housing. Such plans are a testament to the ways in which functionality (and profit) might be at odds with honoring "the past," and might eat away at the sense of cultural identity that comes with remembering "the flaws" and "blemishes" of "history."

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