"Hazel Tells LaVerne"

"Hazel Tells LaVerne"
Katharyn Howd Machan

Throughout her poem, Machan uses many different literary techniques in order to convey the message the poem is illustrating on an analytical level. The two most important, however, are the lack of punctuation and the use of a very specific dialect of the English language. The lack of punctuation in the entirety of the poem does not detract from its clarity or from its literary effectiveness; consequently, it increases the overall effect of the writing. Machan purposely leaves out periods, commas, and capitalization to emphasize the lack of education that Hazel posseses. It also allows for a better flow of the writing and allows the reader to adjust his reading style in order to fit the language of the poem. The language also works to emphasize this educational void that Hazel so clearly characterizes. Hazel's diction with words such as "sida," "sohelpmegod," and "hitsm," and the revelation of her current employer in the third line prove the lower social and educational status in which Hazel finds herself. Her repetition of the phrase "me a princess" accentuates the main meaning of this poem: her inability to rise above her current social standing (Machan). To even think that there might be a better life for her is simply a preposterous idea that Hazel quickly refutes by repeatedly mocking the idea with the rhetorical question.