by Oscar Wellington

Created on: August 22, 2009

Edna St. Vincent Millay's piece: "The Courage that My Mother Had" is a poem that deals with both reverence and resentment. The poem details a speaker who recalls her mother's traits, and how she wishes for those traits herself.

In the first four lines, the speaker explains her mother's disposition: "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" (1-4). The speaker's mother appears dead, since it is the courage she "had" that "went with her" (to the grave). In this sense, there is already an interesting aspect to the poem. After all, if the mother is dead, why does she retain her courage?

The "rock" that is mined (quarried) fresh from New England is a symbol of what the speaker's mother used to be. Hard, unmoving, and steadfast, the rock is a metaphor for the mother's personality. Thus there is the idea that perhaps the speaker's mother did not care enough for the speaker, or did not show enough emotion. What's worse is that now the "rock" or solid state and being that the mother was in, has now been grounded down by father time and (presumably) death. Thus the rock turns from the immovable object to a speck in a larger "granite hill" (which also represents the place of burial).

The next four lines detail the speaker's feelings for her mother more deeply: "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" (5-8). The speaker obviously regards her mother as a meaningful figure in her life, as she treasures the brooch over all things. However, the fact that the speaker could "spare" the brooch indicates that she may just treasure the brooch because it was a gift from her mother, yet she did not really want it. These lines definitely point to the idea that the speaker's relationship with her mother was a little troubled.

In the last four lines, the speaker's passive resentment truly shows: "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" (9-12). Now it is clear that the speaker could easily get rid of the brooch because it is a material gift, when the speaker craved an emotional gift (courage). The speaker is thus mournful that her mother almost stole the speaker's inheritance of courage. The speaker's argument that her mother no longer needs this courage further points to the notion that the speaker is jealous. These lines also reinforce the ideas that the mother has died, and that the "rock" was a metaphor for courage.

In the end, this is a piece that deals with both appreciation and loathing. The speaker clearly praises her mother in the third line, and yet even in the fourth line there are signs that the speaker does not mourn her mother entirely (the mother is just another death or "granite in a granite hill"). The mother of this piece clearly failed to give the speaker courage, and the emphasis that the mother "took" this courage eludes to resentment in the speaker's heart. Finally, the speaker is almost inconsiderate towards the end of the piece, because she states that the mother "has no more need" of the courage her character is based around. For one, the courage is such a large part of the mother's personality that it would be ludicrous for her to give it up. In addition, the mother surely deserves courage in death. Does she not have a right to her own bravado? Ultimately, this is an interesting piece that struggles in a conflicting battle of both positive and negative feelings towards the mother.

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