Anne Sexton’s
COURAGE Name: _______________
Answer the following questions using direct quotations from the poems.
What does “it” refer to in the first line?
Write the first simile that Anne Sexton uses. Why does this simile work?
What is the first personification that she uses?
How does her hero deal with the mean remarks of childhood?
Why is “Later” a great way to introduce the next three stanzas? What other word could
Sexton have used to introduce the reader to the many journeys of life?
List the metaphors Sexton uses to explain the horrors of war and the difficulty of understanding how courage looks different during this time.

Sexton explains that “If your buddy saved you/ and died himself in so doing,/then his courage was not courage,/it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.” How does this simile help you understand this type of love?
How does Sexton acknowledge how people deal with “…a great despair,…”?
How does Sexton explain death?
Courage That My Mother Had
Edna St. Vincent Millet
Where is the author’s mother?
What does the author compare her mother to when she is explaining the strength of her mother?
What other objects could the author have used to explain the courage of her mother?
What one thing would she trade to have her mother’s courage?

Write the simile in the last stanza? Why is it an effective simile?
What do you think the author’s definition of courage is?