How does Boey Kim Cheng powerfully convey his attitude to the planners in this poem?

“The Planners ” is a poem written by the singaporean poet, Boey Kim Cheng. The
poem was published in 1977 and first appeared in his collection “Another Place” and
talks about the manipulative and powerful nature of the planners. The poet uses the
poem as a medium to express his views about fast developing singapore . The poem
clearly indicates disappointment towards the planners by the poet’s mocking tone. He
displays his disgust to the modernisation by the planners by using several literary
devices such as repetition, symbolism and metaphors.

The poet shows the power of the planners by using the line “They plan,They build”
The poet has used repetition of “they” to indicate that they hold power to manipulate
the architecture of the country. The metaphorical phrase “Spaces are gridded” shows
that the planners are very organised people.The word desired in the line “which meet
at desired points” again places an emphasis on the power the planners posses, this
word gives an idea that the planners will bring their idea into reality no matter what
happens.

The Poet shows the dominance of the planners by using the phrase “sea draws back”
to show that the planners are much more dominant and can decide the fate of
nature.
The alliterative phrase “Skies Surrender” further brings an emphasis to shows the
vanquish of nature by the planners of the country.

The word “flaws” has been depicted in such a way that shows that the planners are
perfectionists.The word “useless”shows that the planners think that old buildings are
useless and they that they should be destroyed.This shows their heartless nature
towards the previous history of the buildings. A comma has been used before the
words “knock off” to place emphasis on the cruel nature of the planners.

The words “Dental Dexterity” uses alliteration and metaphor to compare the work of
dentists and the planners in the poem, the poet uses this compassion to show that
both dentists and planners remove the flaws and replace them with pristine
Criticizes, disdainful, scathing tone,

Boey Kim Cheng shows his disapproval by using an accusatory tone to demonstrate
how the planners were planning for perfection. The line “They erase the flaws” implies
how the planners were perfectionists and want everything to be organised and
pristine. Similarly the negative diction “useless” to indicate the old buildings depicts
their modernistic nature and that historical artifacts make no sense to them.
Furthermore the metaphorical phrase “dental dexterity” communicates the
similarities between the planners and dentists as they are known to remove flaws and
replace them with their immaculate counterparts. Moreover the personification and
the extended metaphor “shining teeth” hints to the perfectionism of the planners and
how they strive to be organised