Issues Displayed in Poetry

Issues Displayed in Poetry

        Literature is known for having morals that readers could learn from, and sometimes talking about real-world issues literally or figuratively. These could be in the form of long novels, short stories, plays, and poems. Many writers express their opinions about issues in society, and depending on what form of literature it is determines how much space there is to get the message across. Poems are usually consisted of four-line stanzas and are very short, so writers have to get straight to the point. Common issues that are portrayed in poems are race, technological, gender, and socio-economic issues. In the poems, “Hazel Tells LaVerne” by Katharyn Howd Machan, “A Facebook Sonnet” by Sherman Alexie and “AD” by Kenneth Fearing all have underlying meanings and talk about the many issues that society faces. Using lenses, it is easier to become more aware and have a better understanding of the underlying issues. Many of these issues are very common in the present day and the use of poems helps to discuss them in a way that adds, in many cases, fictional elements to it and making the meaning of them clearer.

        The poem “Hazel Tells LaVerne” by Katharyn Howd Machan is a story that is very similar to the classic, The Princess and the Frog by E.D. Baker. This poem is written as a dramatic monologue in which the female speaker discusses her reaction to a frog that came up the toilet. The frog told the woman that if she kissed him on the nose, that she would become a princess. She is very taken aback and thinks the frog is crazy for even thinking that she could be a princess. She basically laughs at the idea of her being a princess, and is in disbelief that this frog is saying that she could be one. In the lines nearing the end of the poem the speaker says “well i screams/ya little green pervert/ an i hitsm with my mop/an has ta flush/the toilet down three times/me/a princess” (Machan 379). These lines in the poem show how shocked she was and her quick reaction to get rid of the problem and continue on with her life. Her screaming and the sudden thought to hit the frog and flush it down the toilet shows how she panicked at the thought out her being a princess. She not only flushed once, but three times just to ensure that she would never see that frog again. The tone of the poem is full of disbelief, and the last lines almost seem like she would scoff and laugh at the thought and idea of her becoming a princess. Going further into an analysis, the word choice and dialect of the spear reveals to the reader that the speaker is a southern woman, who is not well educated because of her overuse of slang. She is also of the lower-class which is revealed in the first few lines when she says that she works at a Howard Johnson bathroom. She is a cleaning lady who is trapped in the mindset that she will forever be in the lower class, and accepts that as her fate. That is the most apparent reason as to why she is so shocked that this random frog is giving her a simple command to become a princess, and live a happy rich life. A key to seeing how she feels is that fact that she said three times “me a princess.” You could tell how much disbelief she was in by the amount of times she repeated it, “an how I can be a princess/me a princess…me/a princess.” Just like how she flushed the toilet three times, the repetitive nature of her words and actions shows how she did not want to believe what was happening to her, or the possibility of becoming more than what she is, a low class cleaning maid. She has been working hard to make money to support herself and her life, so for a frog to give offer her a simple request to change her whole life was almost unrealistic and too good to be true.

        With use of a gender lens/feminist criticism lens it helps to see the underlying sex issues that this poem has. Katharyn Howd Machan, the writer of “Hazel Tells LaVerne,” is a professor at Ithaca College and works in the department of writing, women’s studies and gender studies. Her background in these makes her a huge advocate of societal issues that have to do with women and feminism. This background relates to her poem because the speaker of the poem struggles with the image that society has labeled her with. This label is the lower class, minority woman who is uneducated and working a low paying, low skill job. There are many women just like her in the present day that deal with the label they are branded with. A prominent theme in the poem is the portrayal of women and men in the society. The frog represents men and the disappointing stereotype and reality that women need men in order to be supported. Using the lens, Hazel represents the traditional women role and the frog represents the traditional male role. The frog was going to make Hazel into a princess after receiving a kiss, making the stereotype apparent that Hazel needs this frog to get any where in life. It is a common theme, especially pre-suffrage movement, that women rely on men in order to survive, and live a supported life. Women also sometimes have the mindset that men use them for sexual desire. According to Lazyleemar, “Hazel’s reaction after the frog asks for a kiss is symbolic of how women view men in society.  Women tend to be overprotective of themselves for fear of men taking advantage of them.“ (1). This could be a reason why she snapped and called the frog a “little green pervert” because she is assuming the worst in the frog, which shows how she assumes the worst in men. Hazel does not want to be weak and rely on a man to become a princess; therefore she is rejecting the traditional roles of women that are usually seen using a gender lens. It is a reality of the past and still heard now that men are the supportive ones of the family and keep it together, and that women are dependent on that support. The mindset of Hazel is empowering that she is rejecting the traditional women roles, but also sad in the sense that she sees permanence in her societal and economic roles.

        Another issue that poetry addresses, but more recently, is technological issues. This could be more narrowed down to social media issues. In “The Facebook Sonnet” by Sherman Alexie, the speaker basically talks about the downsides of social media, more specifically Facebook. It is in the form of an English/Shakespearean sonnet with rhyming couplets, and rhyming every other line. Alexie is making a statement about how Facebook is a platform where people pour their hearts out to their many “friends” who are not really their friends, and how people have this fake image of themselves that is not who they truly are. In the opening line he almost makes a joke by saying, “Welcome to the endless high-school/Reunion. Welcome to past friends/And lovers, however kind or cruel.” (Alexie 495). When people join Facebook they usually search and add people who they graduated high-school or college with, so he is saying that having these people as “friends” is almost like having an endless high-school reunion. People reconnect with old friends and lovers, but it is not the same as interacting with them in person. Another thing that he says is “Let one’s search/For God become public domain./Let church.com become our church./Let’s sign up, sign in, and confess/Here at the altar of loneliness.” (495). These lines are important because it emphasizes the social media issues that were mentioned in the introduction. When he talks about “one’s search for God become public domain” he establishes the fact that people put everything online. A persons search for God, something that is extremely personal, is usually seen on sites like Facebook. This is an issue because privacy is lost, and society is becoming damaged. It is said that privacy will not even exist in the near future, because society’s definition of it is becoming different. He says a website like “church.com” becomes a church. This is an humorous exaggeration because that is not necessarily true, but it gets the point across that people just do everything online these days and how anything can searched, even an online church. The church line plays into the next line where Alexie says “confess” and “altar of loneliness.” People use social media by taking everything online, and telling the world their problems, which in terms of the poem is considering “confessing”. They have all these friends online and think that people actually care about their personal problems, when he reality they have no real-life friends, and are actually lonely. Facebook and other social media sites have this perception of being “well-liked” or “popular” based on the number of followers or friends you have, but these people are usually the ones who are the most lonely and have no real friends who actually care about them. The tone of the poem is playful but also a reality check, about how social media is taking over peoples lives, and how they are not having any real human interactions. The social media issues in this poem are very clear and the speaker does a great job making them clear.