The City Planners by Margaret Attwood Support Material

Canadian poet/author Margaret Attwood is very negative about suburbia in ‘The City Planners’. I have included some clips about suburbs in the United States in particular the evolution of suburbia which happened after World War Two – in Britain, Australia and the US. The first clip is from a television series, and ‘Little Boxes’ by Pete Seeger is the theme song – one that my father taught me on long trips through suburban Sydney to get to the beach! It’s a jolly song, but listen to the lyrics -what is the message?

The City Planners: ESL Starter Activity

The City Planners –Margaret Attwood

Instructions: For each word, write down the definition and include an image.

Word	Meaning	Image
cruising
suburbia
mower or lawn mower
capsize
glacier
architect/city planner
plastic hose

 

Composed Upon Westminister Bridge-Audiovisual

Below are some terrific recordings on Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminister Bridge ranging from traditional readings to some rather cool animated versions. Check them out!

Where I Come From- Line by Line analysis

Biographical Information

• Elizabeth Brewster was born in 1922 in the small lumber town of Chipman,

New Brunswick, Canada.

• As a young poet in the 1940s, Elizabeth Brewster wrote in an almost

desperate attempt to order the chaos of her own psyche.

• Most of Brewster’s early poetry was based on rural and small-town rather

than urban experience and that it was mainly traditional in form. The bulk of

her poems centre around trees, oceans, cabins and childhood

recollections, lulling th

Summary

The key idea of the poem seems to be that a person’s character is always

formed at least in part by the place where he or she is born – “People are

made of places”. Wherever you go in life you will carry with you memories

and echoes of your birthplace, whether it is a city, as in the first stanza, or

the quiet Canadian countryside where Elizabeth herself was born –

“Where I come from, people carry woods in their minds” – and certainly

the picture she draws in the second stanza does seem at first to be idyllic

and wonderful, strongly contrasting with the city images in the first stanza.

This idea shows us that who we are is shaped by where we were born

and where we grew up, but this is not the end of the shaping process, as

the first line suggests ‘People are made of places’, you are shaped as

much by where you were born and grew up as the places that you go to

after your childhood, the things that you experience in other places, the

things that you see. Stanza 1

• This stanza deals with the organized and fast paced life of the city. In the

city everything is precise and controlled; everything runs like clockwork.

• Line 1-3: The first two lines of the poem summarise the main theme of the

poem perfectly. ‘People are made of places.’ As the theme suggests

people will never be able to forget their past, or where they came from.

People will always be able to tell where you come from ‘They carry with

them hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace or the cool eyes of seagazers.’

• Line 3-4: ‘Atmosphere of cities how different drops from them’ The author is

trying to show that the atmosphere of the place you live in can affect the

way that you live, throughout the year as nature progresses through its

seasons, atmospherically city life changes greatly. Stanza 1

• Line 4-5: ‘Like the smell of smog or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the

spring’, smog telling us about a typical winters day with density of the air

being greater and the water vapor blinding our site, ‘the almost-not-smell of

tulips in the spring’ this tells us how the flowers of spring are starting to

blossom, not fully produced and grown the smell of the tulips can not yet be

appreciated fully and with the combined smells of the city one could think

that they are smelling the tulips when actually the city life prevents the

scent of the tulip to a high degree.

• Line 6-7: The idea of the city being organized and tidily planned out is

introduced in these lines, ‘nature tidily plotted in little squares with a

fountain in the center’, telling us that within the city life, nature still exists in

public parks, which have been plotted around the city in small areas to

provide the reassurance of sanity within the community, that nature still

exists within the city environment but is scarce and nature cannot go about

its business how intended to because of the interruptions of city life and

pollution. Stanza 1

• Line 7-8: ‘museum smell, art also tidily plotted with a guidebook’. This

compares the tidily plotted countryside to tidily plotted art in an art museum,

with a guidebook. The guide book can be a metaphor for life, we try to

control everything, to guide ourselves through life instead of taking one

step at a time.

• Line 9-10: ‘the smell of work, glue factories maybe, chromium-plated

offices’, the city is full of skyscraping office buildings built of steel and other

sharp precise materials to give a uniform look and feel to the atmosphere,

also with great complexes comes great amounts of pollution, which

Elizabeth is relating to with ‘the smell of work, glue factories maybe’.

• Line 10-11: In the end of the stanza ‘smell of subways crowded at rush

hours’, this shows the congestion that is caused by overpopulation of the

city. It also shows how rushed life in the city is. Also it shows that at the end

of the day, no matter where you come from, if you work in chromium plated

offices or glue factories, everyone has the same goal and that is to get

home. Stanza 2

• The second stanza introduces an idea change in the poem. The focus of

the poem now shifts more to country and rural life; similar to that in which

Brewster herself grew up in.

• Line 12-13: These lines provide us with key details in which we can relate

to Brewster’s childhood, ‘Where I come from, people carry woods in their

minds, acres of pine woods’. Coming from New Brunswick, Canada, is 80%

forested and so the forest or ‘woods’ will always be in the peoples minds as

it is the centre of the little community.

• Line 14: People here care about things that people in the city would laugh

at, like ‘blueberry patches in the burned-out bush’. To the people in the

community this is relatively significant as it is the growing of something new

where before there was nothing. Stanza 2

• Life 15: ‘wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint’. This is in direct contrast

to the first stanza where everything is new and attractive. The old

farmhouses are there solely to serve a purpose and until they stop serving

that purpose they will be kept, regardless of looks.

• Line 16-17: Brewster portrays a farming life with the ideas of chickens and

hens kept in yards, generally used to provide a source of food in the form of

eggs, or literally speaking the chickens themselves. Also the chickens and

hens being kept in yards, shows us that in the country there is the room to

spare to be able to keep these chickens and hens, whereas in conjunction

with the first stanza, the chickens would not be kept as there is no room nor

is there any need to keeping the chickens and hens.

• Line 17-18: ‘The battered schoolhouse’ again places emphasis on it being

an old building remaining only for practical purposes and not being

replaced by a more attractive building. ‘behind which violets grow’ just

backs up the earlier line of ‘blueberry’s growing in the burnt out bush’, it

shows how nature can create a picture of beauty anywhere, out of anything. Stanza 2

• Line 18-19: ‘Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the

breaking of ice.’ Spring and winter are two opposing seasons and winter

could therefore represent the cold city life and spring the colorful country

life. ‘Ice and breaking of ice’ refers to something in the mind that is broken

when one makes the transition from the city to the country.

• Line 20-21: ‘A door in the mind blows open, and there blows a frosty wind

from fields of snow.’ The last two lines are puzzling. The door blowing open

is just another gateway opening in the mind to the memories that she holds

of her childhood. The second half these lines ‘and there blows a frosty wind

from fields of snow.’ is there to give a feel to the picture that she has been

describing and it gives the reader a cold feeling. The frosty wind from the

fields of snow is relevant because in Canada the winter is very frosty with a

lot of snow and wind. The “door” could be the memory opening in a blast of nostalgia, but the

association of winter and the “frosty wind” suggest something less pleasant,

like a realisation that the past, her place, is not so good after all. This is

supported by the content of the second stanza, where things may seem

superficially attractive in a rustic way, but are “burned out”, “old, in need of

paint”, where the chickins cluck “aimlessly” and buildings are “battered”. So

the suggestion is that it is easy to remember formative places all to positively,

but their legacy can be negative; a “frosty wind” in the mind? Structure

• The Poem is set out into three stanzas, the last being a rhyming couplet,

with the words ‘blow’ and ‘snows’.

• If you look at the poem at the end of the first stanza, the last line finishes as

a half line. The first line of the second stanza then starts halfway down the

line. The reason Elizabeth has done this is because she would like to start

the second stanza at the same place that she finished the first stanza; so

she has the same line of thought, but it is like she has jumped locations.

She finishes the first stanza with ‘subways crowded at rush hours’ and

starts the second stanza with ‘Where I come from’. This is to show a

distinct change between the two stanza with the first being city life and the

second being country life. Structure

• If you look at the lines in the poem every single line with the exception of 5

out of the 21 lines has some sort of a comma, full stop, colon or semi-colon

splitting the lines into two sections. This technique used is a great way to

show the reader that the poem is meant to be read slow and appreciatively,

taking in what is being said and thinking about it more, and not meant to be

quickly read and feeling bewildered afterwards when you are confused

about the poem to which you have just rushed.

• Apart from the previously mentioned no other apparent structure can be

found, so it is more contemporary and free versed poetry, done to provide

uniqueness with the poem and also this allows Elizabeth to get her ideas

and points across as there is next to no boundaries which allows her to use

any form of poetry language that she wants to, getting the reader thinking

more about the poem and its content rather than what words rhyme with

what and so on.e reader into a state of rustic complacency.

‘The Cockroach’ – Writing Template for ESL students

The Cockroach by Kevin Halligan

1)      What is the main idea of the poem, and what is it about?

Kevin Halligan’s ‘The Cockroach’ is a poem about   ………………………………………………………………

The central idea of the poem is that ………………………………………………

2)      How do we know that the poem is a metaphor for him and his life?

We know that the poem is a metaphor for him and his life because ………………………………………

3)      Halligan uses a number of verbs to build up a detailed description of the cockroach. Give two examples of the verbs used, and the impact it has one the reader?

To build up a detailed description of the cockroach, Halligan uses a number of verbs. Verbs such as ……………………………….. and …………………………………………have an impact on the reader because ………………………………………………..

4)      Why  do you think that the size of the cockroach is widely exaggerated?

The size of the cockroach is widely exaggerated because ………………………………………………………………

5)      What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? Why do you think that it changes at the end?

The rhyme scheme of the poem is ………………………………  I think it changes at the end of the poem because ………………………

 Analysis -Summary of the poem
“The Cockroach” is a poem that reflects on life simplicity by watching a cockroach movement. The author uses detailed description of cockroach to create a metaphor of him and his life –“Except I thought I recognized myself”. By describing the cockroach frantic movements, Halligan invite us to believe that this is how most of us go about life; not knowing what we are doing or where we are going, yet we seem satisfy to just move about. Although the title tells us that the poem is about a small and almost insignificant insect- a cockroach; none the less, the poem begins by exaggerating the size of it as “a giant cockroach”. This could mean one of two things; one the person is looking at the cockroach really closely or it could imply human’s superiority complex in which we believe ourselves to be superior to all other. Moreover the Halligan uses simple rhymes and rhyme pattern through the poem which is only broken the moment that the speaker stops looking at the cockroach and starts thinking.

Where I Come From -Elizabeth Brewster (Writing Template ESL)

From the title of poem, we can assume that Elizabeth Brewster’s ‘Where I Come From’ is about _________________________ Although the opening line ‘People are made of places’ can be loosely described as form of alliteration, the repetition of the ‘p’ sound is particularly effective because it creates the impression that ______________________ . Brewster goes on to describe the ‘Atmosphere of cities’ which is created be various distinctive smells such as ‘                              ‘, ‘                              ‘ , ‘                              ‘ ,‘                              ‘ and ‘                          ‘. Focusing on smells, rather than on sight and sound, suggests that it is the speaker’s memory of city-life and this is sharply contrasted in the next half of the poem which is about nature, and the environment where she grew up. I think the line _______________________________ has a strong impact on the reader because__________________.

The second part of the poem is about the place where she grows up and she provides us with some stereotypical imagery of farm-life such as ____________________ and __________________. The line ‘Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons’ reinforces the contrast established in the poem between town and rural life, though there is a change experienced in the final two lines.  ‘A door in the mind blows open’ suggest that _____________________

Hunting Snake by Judith Wright

Sun-warmed in this late season’s grace

under the autumn’s gentlest sky

we walked, and froze half-through a pace.

The great black snake went reeling by.

Head-down, tongue-flickering on the trail

he quested through the parting grass;

sun glazed his curves of diamond scale

and we lost breath to watch him pass.

What track he followed, what small food

fled living from his fierce intent,

we scarcely  thought; still as we stood

our eyes went with him as he went.

Cold, dark and splendid he was gone

into the grass that hid his prey .

We took a deeper breath of day,

looked at each other, and went on.

A Birthday by Christina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a watered shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

The paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

Because my love is come to me.

Raise me  a dais of silk and down;

Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

Is come, my love is come to me.

Continuum by Allen Curnow

The moon rolls over the roof and falls behind

my house, and the moon does neither of these things,

I am talking about myself.

It’s not possible to get off to sleep or

the subject or the planet, nor to think thoughts.

Better barefoot it out the front.

door and lean from the porch across the privets

and the palms into the washed-out creation,

a dark place with two particular

bright clouds dusted (query) by the moon, one’s mine

the other’s an adversary, which may depend

on the wind, or something.

A long moment stretches, the next one is not

on time. Not unaccountably the chill of

the planking underfoot rises.

in the throat, for it’s part the night sky empties

the whole of it’s contents down. Turn on a bare

heel, close the door behind

on the author, cringing demiurge, who picks up

his litter and his tools and paces me back

to bed, stealthily in step.

Where I Come From by Elizabeth Brewster

People are made of places. They carry with them

hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace

or the cool eyes of sea-gazers. Atmosphere of cities

how different drops from them, like the smell of smog

or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring,

nature tidily plotted in little squares

with a fountain in the centre; museum smell,

art so tidily plotted with a guidebook;

or the smell of work, glue factories maybe,

chromium-plated offices; smell of subways

crowded at rush hours.

                                         Where I come from, people

carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;

blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;

wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint,

with yards where hens and chickens circle about,

clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses

behind which violets grow. Spring and winter

are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice.

A door in the mind blows open, and there blows

a frosty wind from the snow.