The Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
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.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave! –
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
The Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
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.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave! –
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
This stanza reveals the speaker as being
a “hard” person also. The blunt way she
speaks of her mother’s death: “…went
with her,…”
I suspect the speaker being as hard as
her mother – granite.
The Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
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.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave! –
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
This stanza again shows that the speaker is
tough; she loves her brooch, but could give it
up.
The Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
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.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave! –
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
The last stanza is most interesting. It is ironic that
everyone knows but the speaker that she is
indeed a strong person. The speaker wants that
courage, not realizing that she has it; it was
instilled in her from her mother. This was a
greater gift than the brooch.
The Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
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.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave! –
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
The last two lines are interesting. She seems to
be saying, “The courage my mother had, I need!”
But the way she ends up saying it, it somehow
states that her mother doesn’t need that courage
now that the mother is dead, (but) the speaker
now has it.”…which she Has no more need of,
and I have.” Interesting. Is the speaker admitting
that she has the courage now to face something
that she may have been dreading?