Because I Have To

Because I Have To

A Literary Work by Matthew Finley

Because I have to

Forge my jumble of thoughts and words,

Beautiful in an abstract way,

Like ancient dinosaur bones into ugly black oil

Into a single

Over-refined

Point.

Because I have to

Pour meaning into the shallow pool

Of phrases that aren’t meant to be deep.

When I say the walls were blue

I mean that they

Were simply

Blue.

Because I have to

Craft a masterwork of tropes and schemes

Laid out to be judged not by man

But by our master The Rubric.

Like Socrates hung out on trial I’ll be punished

For saying what I

Believe.

Explanation of Tropes and Schemes

A Literary Self-Analysis of Because I Have To, by Matthew Finley

Syntax:

                One of the first things that I decided to include with this poem is the idea to end each stanza with a single word in the last line, as seen in lines 7, 14, and 21. It naturally brings each stanza to a close and finishes each thought.

Repetition:

                At the beginning of each stanza I included the phrase “Because I have to.” It emphasizes my criticism of the system we use in modern language arts classes, as well as tying each stanza into the poem itself.

Personification:

                In the third stanza of the poem I discuss the grading system used for these types of assignments. I use capitalization to personify the rubric used to grade them, as well as addressing it as our “master” in line 18. I did this to attack the almost prison-like atmosphere that results from being graded by a rubric.

Allusion:

                In the 19^th line of the poem I talk about Socrates, a man who taught about government in a style that was not good for the government at the time. They promptly took care of him by jailing him and eventually executing him. The allusion to Socrates once again emphasizes the prison-like atmosphere discussed in the above section.

Simile:

                In the first stanza, specifically line four, I use the phrase “Like ancient dinosaur bones into ugly black oil.” At this point I’m talking about the watering-down that occurs when peoples’ thoughts are placed into circumstances where a four year-old with a red pen could grade them. Comparing these two things with “like” makes it a simile, and if I do say so myself, an apt one.

Metaphor:

                In the second stanza, lines 9 and 10, I use a metaphor to compare phrases that aren’t deep to a shallow pool. This both continues to support the main theme of the poem, as well as being a play on words. You see, a shallow pool lacks depth.

Imagery:

                In the fourth line of the poem I use both “ancient dinosaur bones” and “ugly black oil.” These words can bring startling pictures to the fore of your mind, and continue supporting my point that forcing something complex to be something so simple destroys its quality. (495)