the city planners essay

The City Planners Summary & Analysis by Margaret Atwood

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"The City Planners" is a poem by the Canadian poet, novelist, and environmentalist Margaret Atwood, first published in her 1964 poetry collection "The Circle Game." The poem, which takes place in a tidy, monotonous suburb, presents humanity's desire for conformity and rigid control over the environment as strange, stifling, and ultimately futile. In fact, the speaker argues that humanity's desire to stave off the essential "hysteria" of the world is itself a form of madness. The poem also targets the misuse of the earth's resources by "city planners"—here, presented as conniving people who selfishly try to force human order onto the natural world out of vanity and greed.

• Read the full text of “The City Planners”

The Full Text of “The City Planners”

“the city planners” summary, “the city planners” themes.

Order, Control, and Madness

Humanity's Destruction of the Environment

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “the city planners”.

Cruising these residential ... ... the sanities:

the houses in ... ... our car door.

No shouting here, ... ... the discouraged grass.

• Lines 13-16

But though the ... ... the hot sky,

Lines 17-22

certain things: ... ... the wide windows

Lines 23-28

give momentary access ... ... now nobody notices.

Lines 29-33

That is where ... ... own private blizzard;

Lines 34-38

guessing directions, they ... ... madness of snows.

“The City Planners” Symbols

• Lines 33-38: “each in his own private blizzard; / guessing directions, they sketch / transitory lines rigid as wooden borders / on a wall in the white vanishing air / tracing the panic of suburb / order in a bland madness of snows.”

“The City Planners” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Personification.

• Lines 5-7: “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted / sanitary trees, assert / levelness of surface like a rebuke”
• Line 12: “the discouraged grass”
• Lines 13-14: “But though the driveways neatly / sidestep hysteria”
• Line 22: “the too-fixed stare of the wide windows”

Alliteration

• Line 1: “Sunday”
• Line 2: “streets,” “sunlight”
• Line 4: “sanities”
• Line 5: “pedantic,” “planted”
• Line 6: “sanitary”
• Line 7: “surface”
• Line 8: “dent,” “door”
• Line 9: “shouting”
• Line 10: “shatter”
• Line 12: “straight,” “swath”
• Line 16: “same,” “slant”
• Line 17: “certain”
• Line 18: “smell,” “spilled”
• Line 19: “sickness”
• Line 20: “splash,” “brick,” “surprising,” “bruise”
• Line 22: “wide,” “windows”
• Line 27: “gradual,” “glaciers”
• Line 28: “now,” “nobody,” “notices”
• Line 36: “wall,” “white”
• Line 1: “Cruising these residential”
• Lines 1-2: “Sunday / streets”
• Line 2: “August sunlight”
• Line 3: “offends us is”
• Line 6: “sanitary trees, assert”
• Line 7: “levelness,” “surface,” “like,” “rebuke”
• Line 11: “whine,” “power mower”
• Line 12: “straight swath,” “discouraged grass”
• Line 14: “sidestep hysteria”
• Line 16: “same slant,” “avoidance,” “sky”
• Line 18: “smell,” “spilled oil”
• Line 19: “sickness,” “lingering,” “garages”
• Line 20: “splash,” “paint,” “brick,” “surprising,” “bruise”
• Line 21: “plastic hose poised,” “vicious”
• Line 22: “too-fixed stare,” “wide windows”
• Line 23: “access”
• Line 24: “landscape”
• Line 25: “cracks,” “plaster”
• Line 26: “capsized,” “will slide”
• Line 27: “obliquely,” “clay,” “seas,” “gradual,” “glaciers”
• Line 28: “now nobody notices”
• Line 29: “City Planners”
• Line 30: “insane faces,” “political conspirators”
• Line 31: “scattered,” “over unsurveyed”
• Line 32: “territories,” “concealed”
• Line 35: “wooden”
• Line 38: “bland madness ,” “snows”
• Line 1: “these”
• Line 2: “streets”
• Line 6: “sanitary,” “assert”
• Line 15: “being,” “even”
• Line 19: “sickness lingering”
• Line 21: “poised”
• Line 22: “coil”
• Line 26: “capsized,” “slide”
• Line 27: “obliquely,” “clay,” “glaciers”
• Line 30: “insane,” “faces”
• Line 34: “guessing,” “directions,” “sketch”
• Lines 11-12
• Lines 18-22
• Lines 24-27
• Lines 35-38
• Lines 5-8: “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted / sanitary trees, assert / levelness of surface like a rebuke / to the dent in our car door.”
• Line 20: “a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise”
• Line 27: “gradual as glaciers”
• Lines 34-35: “they sketch / transitory lines rigid as wooden borders”
• Lines 18-19: “the smell of spilled oil a faint / sickness lingering in the garages,”
• Lines 26-27: “when the houses, capsized, will slide / obliquely into the clay seas”
• Line 33: “each in his own private blizzard;”
• Line 36: “on a wall in the white vanishing air”
• Lines 37-38: “tracing the panic of suburb / order in a bland madness of snows.”
• Lines 1-4: “Cruising these residential Sunday / streets in dry August sunlight: / what offends us is / the sanities:”
• Lines 29-30: “That is where the City Planners / with the insane faces of political conspirators”
• Line 35: “transitory lines rigid”
• Lines 37-38: “panic of suburb / order”

“The City 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.

• Residential
• Conspirators
• Unsurveyed territories
• (Location in poem: Lines 1-2: “these residential Sunday / streets”)

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

Rhyme scheme, “the city planners” speaker, “the city planners” setting, literary and historical context of “the city planners”, more “the city planners” resources, external resources.

Atwood's Biography — Learn more about Atwood's life and work via the Poetry Foundation.

The Circle Game — Read a review of Margaret Atwood's first collection of poetry, The Circle Game, in which "The City Planners" appeared. 

Atwood on Climate Change — An article discussing the role of climate change in Atwood's fiction.

The Problems of Suburbia — A brief article highlighting some of the main environmental concerns presented by suburban housing developments. 

"Home Sweet Suburb" — Learn more about the rise of suburbia in Canada in the mid-20th century.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Margaret Atwood

Half-Hanged Mary

This Is a Photograph of Me

[you fit into me]

Everything you need for every book you read.

The Literary Companion

Discover the Artistry Within: Your Journey through Poems, Short Stories, and Novels

The City Planners: Analysis and Poetic Devices

Margaret Atwood

If you find this article helpful consider buying THE CITY PLANNER . This will encourage me to continue writing well-researched articles and it will also contribute towards building a better website.

The City Planner

The PDF has three essays: 1. What attitude towards the city planners emerges in the final three stanzas? (471 word) 2. How does Atwood vividly portray her distaste for the compelling actions of the city planners in the poem? (480 words) 3. How does the poem use language and structure to bring across the theme? (521 words) Four Possible Essay Questions (one essay outline) Five Questions to Consider while Reading the Poem

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Line-By-Line Analysis and Literary Devices of The City Planners

Cruising : driving around with no clear destination (has a satiric undertone as it implies that the residential streets on a summer day are free of any activity)

residential: occupied by private houses (should be bustling with life)

dry August: Little or no rain (favorable for outdoor activities)

The first two lines create a false sense of tranquility/serenity. It is a sunny Sunday, yet the residential area is eerily empty.

offends : annoyed; displeased

sanities: having a healthy mind/ practicality/ rationality (building similar houses to reduce the cost of production and thus profit more)

The serenity is interrupted when the speaker states that the reason for annoyance is the unusually well-planned suburb. Sanity in the poem is associated with everything that is in order, pre-planned, and in control.

pedantic: overtly concerned with minute details while not caring enough about understanding or appreciating a subject (the planners are preoccupied with putting everything in order by repressing, trimming, and clipping while all along ignoring important environmental issues)

sanitary trees: trees are artificially planted and shaped by cutting or logging thus preventing the process of natural regeneration of trees (molding nature for uniformity)

sanities and sanitary are quasi homophonic linking the idea of how the rationality of the planners results in suppressing nature.

rebuke: expressing sharp disapproval or criticism (no place for spontaneity)

The speaker elucidates why the serenity and order of the place bothered her. The entire suburb has been designed and created by the planners in a way that disregards the spontaneity of life. The homogenous buildings are set out evenly in rows, and even the plants are planted, trimmed, and pruned to give similar appearance and height. It is astounding to the speaker how even nature can be molded to perfection. Therefore, the speaker sarcastically comments on how the appropriate height of each tree seems to reproach the dent in the door of the car (a lifeless object).

No shouting here: imperative

straight swath: a row of cut grass by mowing machine (alliteration)

whine: High-pitched unpleasant sound.

rational whine: an oxymoron.

discouraged grass : personification

The other reason for the speaker’s annoyance is the absence of sound. It is a holiday yet there are no children playing in this residential area. There are no human activities whatsoever; no image of human companionship, intimacy, or warmth. The only noise is that of the power mower. The “Whine” has been sarcastically described as “rational” as a suburb where roads, buildings, and trees are in order, there the only noise that seems logical is that of the power mower. The grass that grows everywhere does not flourish here as they are chopped to maintain neatness.

But: Links stanza 2 with stanza 1. This stanza states how man has tried his best to tame nature and create a sense of familiarity by making everything identical yet not everything can be controlled.

driveways neatly sidestep hysteria: personification. The driveways are flat as well as uniform. They seem to have a mind of their own as they methodically avoid being unrestrained or uncontrolled i.e., even the driveways are sane. This refers back to the first stanza where the poet expressed how she disliked the “sanities”.

avoidance to the hot sky: the houses have sloped roofs to keep the heat off.

The colon after certain things indicates that the speaker has taken note of a few things that do not comply with the predetermined order of the place.

the smell of spilled oil: olfactory imagery.

surprising as a bruise: simile

a splash of paint on brick: visual imagery.

plastic hose poised in a vicious coil: visual imagery, metaphor

In the next four lines, she lists the things that are not part of the pre-defined order of things. These commonplace things: “the smell of spilled oil”, “a splash of paint” and “a plastic hose” are described in an adverse manner; the pungent odor of oil in the garages is associated with sickness that persists, the stain of paint is compared to an injury, the plastic hose is a venomous snake ready to strike. The use of sibilance (/s/ sound) in the above lines create a sense of menace to the superficial “sanity” of the suburb. It almost mimics the “hissing” of a snake ready to strike.

wide windows: alliteration. Might be the metaphor for the vision or perspective that nature is waiting behind the buildings

too-fixed stare of the wide windows: personification.

future cracks: time is a force that subjects everything to decay. The speaker has a vision when the buildings have developed cracks.

The “Wide-windows” have been personified as they are gazing at the landscape behind the building. However, the gaze is termed as “too-fixed” or vacant as it overlooks landscapes i.e., nature which has been modified by human beings or city planners. The stare lacks the joy of experiencing the vitality of nature. The windows also become the metaphor for the speaker’s vision of a future when the buildings will develop cracks from the ravages of time and weather.

capsized: overturned in the water. It is a metaphor as the houses are compared to a boat or a ship rolling on its side or upside down.

clay seas: a metaphor for a heap of rubble.

gradual as glaciers: simile. The houses are likened to glaciers. The process of melting of glaciers is slow but inevitable due to global warming similarly the buildings slowly turn into a heap of rubble.

These three lines relate to the futility of the city planners’ efforts to be in control of nature and human lives by providing a pre-designed framework for the suburb. The buildings collapse due to the passage of time as well as from weather-related issues. The speaker uses the word “capsize” to compare the buildings to ships or boats gradually sinking into the water. The entire process is again a reminder of glaciers that gradually melt into the water due to global warming. Though everybody is aware of the adverse changes in our environment due to human activities yet they are strangely oblivious. They continue to aggravate the problem until nature strikes back and wins against civilization.

the City Planners: capital letters as they have assumed Godlike stature.

insane faces of political conspirators: metaphor. The city planners are compared to the political figures who are delusional about their importance and worth and exploit people for their own gain.

private blizzard: ignorant and confused

The city planners begin their work of measuring and analyzing the topography for planning and developing residential suburbs in “unsurveyed territories”. The use of the word “territories” seems to suggest that these “unsurveyed” areas are ruled by untamed and unpolluted nature. As they create the plans for the suburbs, build the structures, and mold nature, the planners seem to develop God complex. Ironically the planners who are credited for creating “sanities” in the suburbs are described as possessing “the insane faces”. The folly of trying to repress and shape nature, build similar houses for profit, and be responsible for creating an ambiance of suppression and alienation is manifested in their facial features which bear semblance with “insane” political figures. The city planners as well as the political figures live in a state of denial and fail to acknowledge humanity’s plight. The city planners are themselves alienated from each other by their greed and pride and the chaos they have created in the environment, here symbolized by the blizzard.

transitory lines rigid as wooden borders: simile.

The blizzard creates a surrealistic ambiance. The city planners have taken up the mammoth job of creating space for humankind but they are absolutely clueless about how to build a domain where humans and nature can co-habit. Thus, all the plans and layouts are transitory and they disappear in the snowstorm.

bland madness: an oxymoron. Bland is about being orderly, tedious, and monotonous while madness is disorder, turmoil, and chaos.

However, the conceited planners blinded by their greed and pride refuse to rethink as their plans are as ‘rigid’ as “wooden borders/on a wall”. They refuse to acknowledge the ecological consequences and continue creating plans that reflect minimum thinking and myopic focus. The silent and monotonous snowfall gradually erases these plans that are damaging to one’s mental constitution. The poem does not end with a period which may suggest that it is a looped process. The city planners will eventually build another suburb while nature will again reclaim the site.

Resources you might be interested in:

PPT: https://hbhs12e1english.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/the-city-planners.pdf

https://poemanalysis.com/margaret-atwood/the-city-planners

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The City Planners

Take a drive through Margaret Atwood’s sinister suburban poem to find out who the City Planners are – and what they really want.

Atwood is… acutely aware of the problem of alienation, the need for real human communication and the establishment of genuine human community—real as opposed to mechanical or manipulative Gloria Onley, West Coast Review.

You may have heard of Margaret Atwood thanks to the success of the television adaptation of her most famous novel, The Handmaid’s Tale . This novel was published in 1985 and presaged the release of other works of speculative fiction exploring dystopian near-futures during and after environmental catastrophe: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam . This theme is at play in today’s poem too, in which the gridded, orderly blueprints of our towns and cities are designed by a sinister cabal of City Planners . While their built environments are superficially ‘perfect,’ laid out in straight rows and clean lines, they seem inimical to any sense of life, warmth, or community feeling. Atwood’s speaker, as she drives around one such city suburb with her family, feels like an unwelcome intruder. She doesn’t share the City Planners’ vision of urbanized utopia, the spreading of more and more concrete over the natural world. Buried far beneath the city’s solid veneer, Atwood’s speaker glimpses traces of the real, natural landscape that the City Planners are trying to hide. Suddenly her gaze shifts into the far future; after a huge environmental shift, the city has collapsed into the ground and a new ice age has returned. Yet still the City Planners pursue their mad quest to control not only the people who live in their dystopian cities, but the very landscape, the entirety of the natural world, as well:

The beginning of this poem could be the start of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller or an episode of The Twilight Zone , where all the residents of an ordinary small town turn out to be in a devil’s cult or perpetrators of a secret cloning experiment. Something’s wrong… but you’d be hard pressed to put your finger on precisely what it is. The speaker of the poem is driving with her family (she says us in line three and our in line eight) around the residential streets of an ordinary suburban area; white picket fences, tree lined streets, driveways , and mail-boxes set up by patches of lawn. Atwood is a Canadian poet, so imagine any North American-style suburban town and you should be able to visualise the setting quite well. The sun is out but it doesn’t provide any warmth, it’s crisp and dry and chilling. It should be a relaxing Sunday drive ( cruising implies they’ve got nowhere particular to be, just driving around to pass the time) but something has got the speaker’s hackles up, a pervading feeling of wrongness that emanates from her surroundings. This kind of small town is supposed to represent wholesomeness, family, community, and belonging – but the speaker feels the opposite. To her the town is alienating and even hostile. She uses words such as offends and rebuke (meaning she’s being ‘scolded’ or ‘told off’) to make it clear that she feels like an outsider.

The way Atwood describes the town makes it seem planned so rigidly and laid out so inflexibly, that it actually feels quite oppressive, transforming her casual weekend outing into a tour through a prison camp. An overly oppressive sense of order and control is developed through a series of visual images that depict straight lines and precise, co-ordinated shapes: pedantic rows, planted sanitary trees, levelness of surface, straight swathe and the way the roofs of the town all display the same slant . There’s a sense that everything is smoothed flat, all the sharp, messy edges of life smoothed away, implied by words such as levelness, rows and straight . Such rigid adherence to order and organisation psychically affects the speaker who intrudes into and disrupts the order of the town. Her family represent dis -order, symbolised by the dent in our car door. They are just a little too messy and, well… normal to fit in to such an artificially perfect place. The town not only antagonises the speaker, but also opposes the natural world: the grass is mown straight , the roofs angle themselves away from the hot sky ; even the trees are purposefully planted to create the illusion of nature where none in fact exists. They are described as sanitary , an eerie sonic echo of sanities , as if the trees have been cleansed and sterilised and recruited onto the opposite side of a war against nature, which is too wild, free, and unpredictable for the City Planners to stomach. The word sanities is actually used ironically ; ‘sanity’ is the opposite of insane and means ‘not crazy’ – conversely, the poem develops the theme that a too-fixed and overly pedantic obsession with rationality is its own kind of madness .

The feeling of lifelessness in what should be a thriving town is enhanced when you realise, somewhere towards the end of the second verse, that there’s no people anywhere. The town is empty – but it’s an uncanny, B-movie emptiness, as if everybody is attending the same cult meeting, or have been mysteriously evacuated, or are purposely hiding themselves away for some sinister reason. To draw attention to this strange lack of flesh-and-blood inhabitants, Atwood uses personification so the town seem like it’s running itself; the power mower whines and is cutting a straight swathe through a perfectly manicured lawn, but nobody is described pushing it along. The driveways sidestep , the roofs avoid the sky, the trees assert and rebuke and the poor, over-managed grass feels discouraged . There seems to be a latent threat of violence hanging in the air and frequently Atwood uses diction that suggests hostility or threat: shouting, shatter, cutting, bruise, poised, vicious . At one point she describes the sound of a lawn mower as a whine , an onomatopoeia of the sound an animal makes when it’s afraid or in distress. The feeling is very unsettling. All this builds to the uncomfortable too-fixed stare of the wide windows , as if the buildings – or unseen figures lurking within – are watching her threateningly, judgementally.

As being in the town is an unpleasant and even intimidating experience, Atwood arranges patterns of sound to help transmit this feeling to her readers. She frequently employs hard consonant sounds from every possible category: plosive P and B, dental D and T, and hard guttural C and K sounds. The poem opens with one of these gutturals that immediately undermines the relaxing connotations of c ruising ; what should be an easy afternoon’s drive is fraught with tension as they explore the hostile, deserted streets. Such hard sounds imply the threat of violence, also suggested through simile when a splash of brightly coloured paint marks the monotony of a blank brick wall like a bruise . Atwood foregrounds these sounds using alliteration (where words begin with the same letter, for instance, p edantic/ p lanted … d ent in our car d oor … p lastic hose p oised …) and consonance which repeats letters anywhere in a word: c u tt ing a s t raigh t swathe in the d is c ouraged g rass . She presses hard consonants together so they clash unpleasantly: a s p lash of p aint on b ri ck sur p rising as a b ruise compresses an impressive number of plosive sounds into a single line, and re b u k e to the d en t in our c ar d oor releases a cacophony of noises that jangles in the ear ( cacophony is the clashing together of consonant sounds that do not blend or harmonise). Underneath everything hisses a sharp sibilance , insinuating itself into almost every line of the first two verses like a snake in the grass: Crui s ing the s e re s idential S unday s treet s in dry Augu s t s unlight and s anitary tree s a ss ert levelne ss of s urfa c e are two lines that demonstrate the effectiveness of this sound, symbolically associated with snakes and therefore – thanks to the biblical story of a snake tempting Adam and Eve’s fall from paradise – evil, suggesting the underlying ‘wrongness’ of the town. At one moment she even describes a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil as if it really is a poisonous snake lying in wait for an unsuspecting intruder.

The madness and futility of trying to impose such absolute order so inflexibly on the world is revealed through certain things the writer sees at the end of verse two. No matter how completely the City Planners try to erase anything that doesn’t conform to their idea of a perfect town, life is inherently messy, accidents happen all the time, and people’s spontaneous desires can’t be permanently repressed. Someone has spilt oil somewhere, there’s a random splash of paint on a wall, and a hose has been left lying around carelessly. All three of these instances symbolise the futility of the City Planner’s efforts to erase spontaneity, chaos and disorder from human lives. In this section of the poem, we start to realise that these certain things are not threatening to the speaker, although she certainly feels wary, but threatening to the minds behind the town’s design. From their point of view tiny deviations such as the smell of spilt oil are like a sickness, as if the town can be metaphorically ‘infected’ by carelessness, and no amount of frantic scrubbing can fully ‘cure’ the illness of clumsiness. Similarly, the splash of paint becomes a bruise turning an innocuous slip of the brush into an act of vandalism; the hose is poised on the edge of a vicious attack. To anyone inured to such a bland, grey vision of the world, these unexpected twists and splashes of colour must be surprising and shocking. But for the speaker, and for us, they reveal glimpses of the truth hidden behind the City Planner’s brutalist designs – they can’t keep the real world, with all the inherent messiness and chaos of life, walled up completely.

At the end of verse two, the speaker’s attention is transfixed by the too-fixed stare of the wide windows – and the poem creates the effect of her being slowly drawn into the smoky glass. Once she’s penetrated beneath the illusion of solidity the City Planners have created, she’s granted momentary access to a vision of the real, living landscape that’s buried beneath the City Planner’s vulgar, dystopian town. I love what happens to the poem’s form when she begins to experience this vision. It’s like we’re watching that Twilight Zone episode again, and the camera zooms in on the actor’s face while the background remains bizarrely still. The way the vision hypnotically unfolds in the speaker’s mind is evoked through enjambment linking verse three to verse two seamlessly. There’s no full stop at the end of the second verse so the poem just keeps going, crossing over the intervening white space as if crossing a threshold between ‘now’ and what will be in the future . The third verse takes all the town’s straight lines and skews them, folding them up and screwing up the City Planners’ orderly blueprints with the phrase behind or under . Where the poem is frequently interrupted and truncated in verses one and two, as if lines of poetry are roads in the town that need controlling ( caesura , deliberate breaks in lines of poetry, made with colons , semi-colons and short lines leaving plenty of blank space create this impression), verses three and four are fluid, with barely any interruption to the flow of words. Having felt so confined, suddenly the prison walls melt away as the world shifts into a new, post-human epoch.

As we’re propelled forward in time, we see cracks in the plaster that break the City Planner’s spell and pretty soon the whole town is revealed to be a film-set sham hiding the real world behind its thin, pretend veneer. Where the fake, plastic town asserts levelness and order, we now see the natural world ‘reassert’ its own chaos. The cracks of entropy and decay are processes inherent to life that can be temporarily disguised, but not reversed or eradicated. Projecting into the far future , the speaker imagines a time when the houses… will slide obliquely into the clay seas, obliquely being a word that pointedly contrasts with the City Planners’ rigid adherence to straightness and order above all else. Where verbs were either absent, muted (like planted ) or negated in the opening verse ( no shouting here, or shatter of glass ) now the poem presents a vivid image of powerful movement as the entire city slides into the ground. While the City Planners think their constructions and monuments are permanent, Atwood’s speaker suddenly presents them as flimsy and temporary, implied through the word capsized , as if the houses in the town are metaphorical boats; instead of standing on firm foundations, they merely float for a while before the natural and inevitable shift in the world’s climate drags them under a topographical tidal wave. She remembers that the earth is not immobile, but in constant motion – even the mountains grow and shrink over the centuries. Of course, these processes occur imperceptibly slowly, so the phrase gradual as glaciers reminds us that evolution is measured in geological time, over thousands and millions of years. While nobody notices , change is nevertheless inevitable and irresistible; the speaker is certainly gripped by the truth of her vision, as implied by the modal verb will , conveying a strong degree of certainty as to what is going to happen. Enjambment again comes to the fore in this middle section of the poem, crossing the white space between verses as if crossing eons of time and letting lines flow one into the other in mimicry of the houses slipping slowly-but-surely into the ground. Opposing sounds reinforce the conflict between human and natural worlds, the former accompanied by a weak sounding N ( n ow n obody n otices ), the latter by powerful, guttural alliteration ( c apsized, c lay, g radual, g laciers ) throughout this verse.

Finally, in verse five, Atwood brings the titular City Planners into the poem. These people symbolise forces of urbanisation which, by definition, encroach on our remaining natural spaces. They are authority figures who control our cities and towns, urban planners who make decisions about our built environments, determining where and how we can live. However, in a clever twist on the name Planners , which implies organisation, forethought, and an ability to work together as a team, they are instead depicted as disorganised, frantic, and incoherent. They are lost, scattered over unsurveyed territories (a phrase implying the natural world is just a development opportunity to them) and instead of following a proper plan, they are guessing directions . They are concealed from each other , every individual marooned inside his or her own private blizzard with no way of seeing beyond the ends of their own noses, let alone communicating and coordinating with others in their team. Atwood’s decision to write her poem in free verse really pays off here, as the absence of any underlying rhythm or rhyme scheme reflects the total lack of coherence in their designs. They are constantly described using diction from the lexical field of ‘mania’ ( hysteria, insane, panic, madness ) leaving us in no doubt that, in the opinion of the poet, these people are motivated as much by their own insecurities and fears as they are by lust for control. She uses metaphor to describe their faces in a way that renames them political conspirators ; Atwood believes these people have no real interest in landscaping, city planning or design, rather they manipulate our physical environments as a way of exerting control over our lives and staving off their existential fear of destruction as the world spins inevitably into the future and massive climate change exposes the insignificance of our short-sighted human civilisations.

The ultimate futility of the City Planners’ war against nature is highlighted through a series of impossible contrasts and paradoxical images : transitory lines are described as rigid ; a solid wall vanishes into thin air; order contrasts with panic ; bland madness is an oxymoron (a kind of juxtaposition where contrasting words are paired improbably together). Despite their efforts to build permanently over the natural landscape , snow and ice become the defining motifs (a motif is a symbol that keeps recurring in a text) of the last half of the poem, as if the world has been plunged into a new ice age: glaciers, blizzard, white vanishing air, madness of snows. These powerful elemental forces engulf the City Planners so that the speaker sees them only from a distance, a perspective that makes them appear small and powerless, their frantic attempts to continue their mad work under these conditions just looks pathetic. As the illusion of authority is stripped from her – and our – eyes, we are all freed to question the right of the City Planners to dictate how our present-day world should look and feel.

Suggested poems for comparison:

• The Moment by Margaret Atwood

In this lovely poem by the same writer, a woman feels close to nature – so close she feels she owns parts of it. But then the natural world begins to withdraw, and she is forced to reassess her relationship to the natural world.

• The Second Coming  by William Butler Yeats

If you enjoy post-apocalyptic poetry, you might like this famous poem by Yeats, who imagines the destruction of the world by a terrifying beast representing all the forces of nature. This poem is where the famous line ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’ comes from.

• The Planners  by Boey Kim Chung

A perfect companion for Atwood’s poem, Boey Kim Chung writes about the expansion of his home, Singapore, in a similar way. In this poem, City Planners are like dentists, anaesthetising you against any reaction to the pain they cause as they plan, demolish, rebuild, expand, in a never-ending cycle of relentless urbanisation.

Additional Resources

If you are teaching or studying  The City Planners  at school or college, or if you simply enjoyed this analysis of the poem and would like to discover more, you might like to purchase our bespoke study bundle for this poem. So that you can see for yourself how effective our resources are, for now, this bundle is free in the store.

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The City Planners, Margaret Atwood, Analysis, Summary, Style

"The City Planners" by Margaret Atwood presents a critical portrayal of urban development and conformity. The poem begins with the speaker cruising through residential streets on a sunny August day, expressing their dissatisfaction with the orderly and sanitized environment. The houses, trees, and driveways conform to strict patterns, evoking a sense of monotony and stifling sameness. However, beneath this apparent serenity, there are hints of disarray and imperfection, such as the smell of spilled oil and unexpected splashes of paint. The speaker also suggests a foreboding future, where the houses will eventually succumb to decay and slide into the clay seas unnoticed. The poem presents the City Planners as enigmatic figures, hidden in their own private blizzards of power and disconnected from the consequences of their actions. Through its vivid imagery and critical tone, "The City Planners" highlights the tension between order and individuality in modern urban landscapes.

The City Planners: Poem Text

Critical analysis, stylistic analysis, attitudes/feelings, linking poems.

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The City Planners by Margaret Atwood: poem analysis

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This is an analysis of the poem The City Planners that begins with:

Cruising these residential Sunday streets in dry August sunlight:...

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The Planners Essay Questions

By boey kim cheng, essay questions.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by Timothy Sexton

How does the speaker convey a sinister quality to the title characters?

The title characters are consistently referred to through the pronoun “they” which is extremely suggestive of anonymity. We know that “they” are municipal planners and builders, but the constant use of the more allusive pronoun as an identifier imbues them with a symbolic status indicating something larger and potentially more threatening if not downright menacing. This is a poem inordinately suited for the fecund conspiracy theories characterizing post-Obama America. While the subject may be mere municipal bureaucrats in reality, the speaker’s use of the impersonal pronoun creates an atmosphere of dread in which “they” become all-powerful authoritarian figures capable of controlling the future and even erasing memories of the past on a mass scale.

What one line is arguably most responsible for the poem’s overall tone of conspiratorial paranoia?

From the use of the conspiracy theorist’s favorite pronoun “they” to the overall construction of a feeling of average people being at the mercy of the agenda of the planners, the poem creates and sustains a deceptively dark mood of intensifying paranoia. “They” may be simply municipal bureaucrats in charge of the necessary evil of urban planning on a literal level, but from the beginning they are also charged with vague, ambiguous unspoken powers as well. Imagery endows “them” with the power to alter the past and correct imperfections and even to outwit and bully the power of the natural word. But it is within the dense extended dental work metaphor that inhabits the entire second stanza that the paranoia reaches its climax before immediately beginning to subside back to something a little less extreme.

After suggesting through metaphor that the planners have the power to anaesthetize residents to the shock of the new, the speaker goes all in by then asserting that they can also alter the memories of citizens and even lull them into a state of hypnotic suggestion that facilitates easy and unquestioned compliance with a chilling message that is also an essential part of the conspiracy theory vernacular: “They have the means.” And, of course, the unspoken part of that message echoes that conspiratorial code as well: if someone has the means to do something, you can bet the farm that they will do it .

What use of the literary device of oxymoron brings the poem to its paradoxical close?

The final stanza is much shorter than the others and directed inward toward the speaker himself rather than commentary directed outward toward the effects of the city planners. In what seems to be a moment of supreme resignation to accepting the things he cannot change, the speaker ironically seems to assert that he will not moved to write poetry about the agenda of change and alteration driving the planners. He assures the reader that he will not be moved to expend a single drop of poetic inspiration toward the purpose of staining what has become the blueprint for the future. Interesting, however, he chooses a strange oxymoron for the concept of the future: “our past’s tomorrow.” The rationale for this choice is not immediately clear and it is the ambiguity that stimulates questions about the speaker’s honesty regarding his own future plans.

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The Planners Questions and Answers

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Study Guide for The Planners

The Planners study guide contains a biography of Boey Kim Cheng, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Planners
• The Planners Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Planners

The Planners essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Planners by Boey Kim Cheng.

• Analyzing Metaphors Hidden Within Boey Kim Cheng's 'The Planners'

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Analysis of "The city planners" by Margaret Atwood

“The city planners” Margaret Atwood

The poem “The city planners” was written by Margaret Atwood.  This poem is about living in a suburban residence. Which is described by the narrator as a boring place, were everything is the same and there is no originality or uniqueness.  It also talks about the “city planners” who are apparently ruining the city and imposing rules. The key theme in this poem is the numbness produced by living in a place without originality or creativity.

The first stanza of this poem is describing the city, nature and how dull and how nothing exciting ever happens in that suburban residence. “What offends us is the sanities:” with this line the author is kind of criticising the city and suburbia. She then continues to list the things that bother her “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees…”   this words show how the author sees suburbia which she describes as picture perfect everything is too clean “sanities” too neat and structured. “assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the dent in our car door.” With this quotation the narrator even says that the dent in her car door makes her feel bad and how it seems to be out of place as everything in suburbia is flawless.  In the next line she continues to describe the city “No shouting here, or shatter of glass”. And in the lines 11-12 she says “nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of the power mower cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.” which tells us that the only noise is the sound of a power mower and that even the strip of grass cutted is neat and perfectly straight.

This is a preview of the whole essay

In the second stanza the narrator continues to describe and list the flaws she believes this suburban residence has.  For example “But thought the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria by being even” she is saying that although everything seems perfect, all the problems are being putted aside “sidestep hysteria”.  Then she describes the roofs as being all the same and not having any individuality “the roofs all display the same slant and avoidance of hot sky”. After that Atwood introduces the images of “the smell of split oil a faint sickness lingering in the garages”. Finally with the quotation “a splash of paint on a brick surprising as a bruise” she is reinforcing the main idea of everything being flawless in the suburbs and how a splash of paint which is something very usual is as surprising as a bruise.

Stanza three is a short stanza in which the narrator talks what may happen in the future to all this perfect things in suburbia. For example with these lines “future cracks in the plaster” “will slide obliquely into clay seas, gradual glaciers that right now nobody notices” the author is saying that all these things of being flawless will lead to destruction.

In stanza four Atwood introduces the new idea of the “city planners”. In the lines 29-32 the narrator is describing the city planners, who they are and where they work. They say that they are “political conspirators” which makes them powerful. Then in line 33 it is said “each in his own private blizzard” which could be referring to each of the city planners different ideas that will destroy the city. Then it says “they sketch transitory lines rigid as wooden borders” which means they are imposing tough rules and creating paths for the people to follow.

Stanza five is a brief two line stanza which ends the poem with the lines “tracing the panic of suburb order in a bland madness of snow” this means that all the suburbs are perfect and follow a straight perfect line but really there is a snow storm “madness” hidden by all this flawless, picture perfect world.

This poem starts with a calm tone, this can be seen in this quotation “cruising these residential Sunday streets in dry August sunlight” but then the tone shifts to a more sarcastic and humorous tone that can be seen for example in “nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of a power mower cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass” and “a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise” this is sarcastic because things that are normal or usual are offending to her. The subtext and what the author is trying to imply with this poem is that the suburban lifestyle were everything is perfect will soon be destroyed as it is wrong to live in a place without individuality or creativity.

This poem is written in a free verse style; without formality or slight structure. She uses images for example in describing the sanities: “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees, assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the dent in our car door.” “the smell of split oil” “the future cracks in the plaster” referring to the future problems that the “city planners” and the world they are creating will bring. The tone and mood of this poem is firstly calm but then in turns into an apocalyptic and disastrous tone “the future cracks in the plaster when the houses, capsized, will slide obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers that right now nobody notices.” The poem creates an atmosphere of dread and anxiety as it talks about the destruction of the world.

This poem can be linked with the poem by Boey Kin Cheng “The Planners”. Both of these poems talk about similar themes which are the suburban and perfect cities and nature for example in “The city planners” Atwood describes the “planted sanitary trees” “the discouraged grass” and in “The planners” Cheng talk about “the seas draw back” and “the skies surrender”. Also both poems talk about people that “plan” or control the cities.

So in conclusion this poem is transmitting a feeling of anxiety, concern and unease as it talks about the destruction and madness there really is in the world although some people “the city planners” try to cover it and live hiding the truth of this world of perfection and flawlessness. I think the poem is successful as it is transmitting its subtexts which are the dullness and flatness of this world which soon will be destroyed in a pretty clear way and I think that is what Margaret Atwood was trying to transmit through this poem.

Document Details

• Author Type Student
• Word Count 1070
• Page Count 2
• Subject English
• Type of work Exam preparation

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Love is not a profession genteel or otherwise sex is not dentistry the slick filling of aches and cav… you are not my doctor

Living backwards means only I must suffer everything twice. Those picnics were already loss: with the dragonflies and the clear… What good did it do me to know

You, going along the path, mosquito-doped, with no moon, the… a single orange eye unable to see what is beyond the capsule of your dim

He would like not to kill. He wou… what he imagines other men have, instead of this red compulsion. Wh… fail him and die badly? He would l… finger by finger and with great te…

Gone are the days when you could walk on water. When you could walk. The days are gone. Only one day remains,

You’re sad because you’re sad. It’s psychic. It’s the age. It’s… Go see a shrink or take a pill, or hug your sadness like an eyeles… you need to sleep.

An affair with Raymond Chandler, what a joy! Not because of the mangled bodies and the marinated cops and hints of eccentric sex, but because of his interest in furniture. He kn...

you fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye

This is a word we use to plug holes with. It's the right size fo… blanks in speech, for those red he… shaped vacancies on the page that… like real hearts. Add lace

i Behind glass in Mexico this clay doll draws its lips back in a snarl; despite its beautiful dusty shawl,

More and more frequently the edges of me dissolve and I become a wish to assimilate the world, in… you, if possible through the skin like a cool plant’s tricks with ox…

In the burned house I am eating b… You understand: there is no house,… yet here I am. The spoon which was melted scrapes… the bowl which was melted also.

This is the lair of the landlady She is a raw voice loose in the rooms beneath me. the continuous henyard

I am the heart of a murdered woman who took the wrong way home who was strangled in a vacant lot… who was shot with care beneath a t… who was mutilated by a crisp knife…

Snow packs the roadsides, sends du… onto the pavement, moves through vision like a wave or sand… The bus charges this winter, a whale or blunt gray

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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Strange Glow Over Moscow Skies Triggers Panic as Explosions Reported

B right flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow in the early hours of Thursday morning, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the outskirts of the city.

Video snippets circulating on Russian-language Telegram channels show a series of flashes on the horizon of a cloudy night sky, momentarily turning the sky a number of different colors. In a clip shared by Russian outlet MSK1.ru, smoke can be seen rising from a building during the flashes lighting up the scene.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the details of the video clips, including when and where it was filmed. The Russian Ministry of Emergency situations has been contacted via email.

Several Russian Telegram accounts said early on Thursday that residents of southern Moscow reported an explosion and a fire breaking out at an electrical substation in the Leninsky district, southeast of central Moscow.

Local authorities in the Leninsky district told Russian outlet RBC that the explosion had happened in the village of Molokovo. "All vital facilities are operating as normal," Leninsky district officials told the outlet.

The incident at the substation in Molokovo took place just before 2 a.m. local time, MSK1.ru reported.

Messages published by the ASTRA Telegram account, run by independent Russian journalists, appear to show residents close to the substation panicking as they question the bright flashes in the sky. One local resident describes seeing the bright light before losing access to electricity, with another calling the incident a "nightmare."

More than 10 villages and towns in the southeast of Moscow lost access to electricity, the ASTRA Telegram account also reported. The town of Lytkarino to the southeast of Moscow, lost electricity, wrote the eastern European-based independent outlet, Meduza.

Outages were reported in the southern Domodedovo area of the city, according to another Russian outlet, as well as power failures in western Moscow. Electricity was then restored to the areas, the Strana.ua outlet reported.

The cause of the reported explosion is not known. A Telegram account aggregating news for the Lytkarino area described the incident as "an ordinary accident at a substation."

The MSK1.ru outlet quoted a local resident who speculated that a drone may have been responsible for the explosion, but no other Russian source reported this as a possible cause.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Moscow with long-range aerial drones in recent months, including a dramatic wave of strikes in late May.

On Sunday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the region's air defense systems had intercepted an aerial drone over the city of Elektrostal, to the east of Moscow. No damage or casualties were reported, he said.

The previous day, Russian air defenses detected and shot down another drone flying over the Bogorodsky district, northeast of central Moscow, Sobyanin said.

There is currently no evidence that an aerial drone was responsible for the reported overnight explosion at the electrical substation in southern Moscow.

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