Dr. Light
English 101
27 October 2014
Analysis of “Hazel Tells LaVerne”
In Katharyn howd Machan’s poem “Hazel Tells LaVerne”, a maid at the Howard Johnsons Hotel finds a frog in the toilet. The frog tells the maid he could turn her into a princess. She does not believe him and proceeds to flush him down the toilet. This poem can be evaluated on its content, its literary techniques, and its relation to a fairytale.
The content of the poem is very important. The poem talks about a maid at the Howard Johnsons hotel. This maid is cleaning the bathrooms during the poem. While cleaning she stumbles upon a frog in one of the toilets. She thinks nothing much of the frog and tries to flush him down the toilet. The maid stops when she realizes he is talking to her. He begins to tell her that he can turn her into a princess, all she has to do is kiss him. He says “kiss me just kiss me”. The maid is very skeptical so she continues with her original plan and flushes him down the toilet. She does believe that she could ever be a princess. Hazel says “me a princess” to show her disbelief. The sad part of her decision is that how does she know she could not be a princess? It is sad she does not have enough confidence to believe she could be a princess. The maid sold herself short and did not give herself a chance to improve her position. This situation illustrates how most people today do not view themselves as anything special. Most people do not see themselves as capable of being anything more than what they already are at this very moment. They only see their most average and plain version of themselves. This is the main point of the poem. This main point may not be apparent right away, but after some digging it will be found.
The poem is not long, but it gets the job done despite its length. The poem looks like any normal poem. There is not elaborate in the way it is written. The poem contains twenty-five lines. Some of these lines are different lengths