"Hazel Tells Laverne"-Katharyn Howd Machan

     The manner in which this poem is written contributes greatly to its significance.   Even without the title, the reader would be able to recognize the poem as a conversation due to the use of vernacular.  By omitting grammar and instituting cacography, Machan creates an image of who the characters are without explicitly telling the readers who they are or what they look like.
    The nonexistence of punctuation to mark the end of a thought gives Hazel a personality.  From the development of this personality, the reader will most likely assume the refrain, "me a princess" (Machan), was stated in a interrogative or exclamatory manner.  Either way, this shows that the idea of Hazel becoming a "princess" was completely unfathomable.  Her location and assumed place within society seems to create an atmosphere that reinforces this idea.
    One aspect of this poem that confuses me is the year in which it was written.  To me, 1976 does not compliment the theme of the poem which addresses specific divisions within society that were strong throughout the 1930s into the 1960s.  The poem has a much older tone to it, as if it had been written in these decades.