'The Planners' by Boey Kim Cheng

The poem begins with which poetic device?

• Personification

• Repetition

• Metaphor

• Simile

'Permutations of possibilities' is an example of which poetic device?

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Alliteration

• Rhyme

True or false: the poem is written in free verse.

• True

• False

• I have no idea (I'll ask Mr Cole later)!

'They build and will not stop' evokes what feeling?

• Happiness at so many new building being built.

• Sadness that we do not know who they are.

• Shock at the amount of new buildings being built.

• Threat at the relentless approach from these unknown planners.

'Even the sea draws back and the skies surrender' means...

• The war with the nature has been lost.

• Buildings are dominating the skyline and even encroaching upon the oceans.

• The buildings are being constructed on revolutionary new reinforced clouds.

• It is a nice sunny day - let's go to the beach!

How many stanzas are in the poem?

• One

• Two

• Three

• Er, what's a stanza again, Mr Cole?

The second stanza contains an extended metaphor likening what to what?

• The planners to dentists.

• The buildings to dentists.

• The open spaces to grids.

• Mr Cole to a derelict Dubai skyscraper.

'Dental dexterity' and 'gleaming gold' are examples of what poetic device?

• Personification

• Consonance

• Assonance

• Alliteration

'Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.' This is the sarcastic description of the public being...?

• Put to sleep, made to eat too much, tortured.

• Metaphorically sedated, erased of memory, brainwashed into believing that the new buildings are a positive thing.

• Punched, kicked, slapped around.

• Told off, forgotten about, exiled.

'...the blueprint

of our past's tomorrow.'

What does the word 'blueprint' refer to?

• An architectural term for a plan of a building.

• A book that is made from the wood of the infamous bluetree.

• Something the Yeti left in the sand when it was cold.

• Mr Cole's splendid new blue sunglasses.