The Courage My Mother Had Analysis

“The Courage That My Mother Had” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Courage is a quality that everyone wants, but a few possess. In the lyric poem “The Courage That My Mother Had” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, the speaker’s mother had died and she regrets that she did not have the courage that her mother had. Millay worships her mother for supporting three daughter after their father left. In the poem, the mother left a golden brooch, but the speaker wishes that she had left her courage instead.

Poetic devices and connotations help convey the meaning of the poem. For example, the poem has a positive connotation when saying “The courage that my mother had / Went with her, and is still with her still” (1-2) but, towards the end of the poem there is a negative connotation when the speaker says “Oh, if instead she she’d left to me / The thing she took into the grave!-” ( 9-10) This shows that connotations help convey the meaning of regret. The negative connotations help the readers see the regret of not inheriting her mother’s courage. In

For example,the speaker says “The golden brooch my mother wore / She left behind for me to wear / I have no thing I treasure more ; / Yet, it is something I could spare.” This shows that the speaker treasures the brooch that her mother left behind . But, she regrets that she had inherited the brooch instead of the courage her mother had. In addition, the speaker uses metaphors and similes to convey the theme of her poem. She uses the metaphor “Rock from New England quarried; / Now granite in a granite hill” (3-4) and the simile “courage like a rock” (11) to show the theme. This shows that her mother is a very strong and courageous woman and that the speaker really appreciates her mother’s bravery. She wishes that her mother could give her the courage that she now needs to get through the hardship of her mother's