In these two poems, Cheng expresses worries about the way people neglect the importance of the environment and how the progress of industrialization is insuppressible, not even nature is spared. “Report to Wordsworth” is a negative view on mankind’s harm to nature, the causes and results of pollution; it was written with a tone of desperation and Cheng’s attempt to seek help from Wordsworth to inform him about the problem with the world today. “The Planners” highlights the importance of preserving the past while describing the unstoppable power of development and industrialization. The poem is longing for natural spaces, not corruption by cement and buildings. It reveals how our past is continually being forgotten and easily replaced in our futuristic world.
Throughout the poem, the multinational companies and conglomerates that run the world are referred as “They”. “They…show more content… Humans needs fossil fuels to keep our futuristic world running, and so we must drill through the ocean floor to reach these fuel; this emphasizes that it only becomes a benefit to man at the cost of Mother Nature. The poet juxtaposes what is happening in the present with the word “fossils”. Fossils are treasures that connect us to the past and the fact that we are drilling right through them destroys our past; the idea that progress has destroyed our relation to the past because we only look to the future.
The sentence “But my heart would not bleed poetry.” conveys that idea that in this perfect world, there is no place for poetry, something which is very dear to Cheng’s heart. The idea of blood is link in the lexical chain of words such as “flaws” and “blemishes”, all these things are what makes life real and honest. A world that is deceptive and artificial isn’t a world worth living in. This allows the reader to feel a sense of empathy and concern for the