Edna St. Vincent Millay: Poem Analysis Essay

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “The Courage that my Mother had” is a three-stanza poem. This poem has a very wistful tone to it, the speaker regrets the fact that she didn't get her mother's courage that she longed to have. To express the speaker’s grief and loss, Edna St. Vincent Millay uses poetic devices such as positive/negative Connotations and metaphors, along with some others.

Edna st. Vincent Millay uses metaphors to show how the speaker wishes that she had inherited her mother's courage. The comparison that most people notice first is “courage like a rock.” While comparing the mother to the rock, the poet illustrates that even though it is really difficult to wear down her mother, it is not impossible, just as it is hard to wear down a rock. The speaker shows her want for mum’s courage at many points in this poem. When the poet says “now granite in a granite hill,” she is referring to the fact that the mum is now gone and already buried. While saying “Granite in a granite hill” the speaker is expressing that the speaker has not already gotten her mum’s courage, then she most likely would not. The courage is now a part of the place where the mum was buried. The comparisons in this poem show that the theme of this poem is one of affliction.

In this poem, Millay uses many different ways to express the theme of grief and loss, but the most common way was through word choice. One of the best examples is when the speaker says “left behind.” When the speaker says “left behind,” she expresses the loss that the speaker feels after her mum’s death. The word “Left” makes it seem as if it was not as important as other things she could have been given. “Left” makes it appear as if it were forgotten, just another material belonging. When Edna St.Vincent Millay says “she took'' it expresses the grief that the speaker felt after losing her mum. It is as if the Mother stole the courage from the speaker instead of passing it on when truthfully it wasn't her choice. When using the “took,” it shows that the speaker did not get her mother's courage even though she wanted it. Her mother “took” the courage with her, just as death “took” the mum away from the speaker. The negative undertones in this poem help us understand the deeper meaning, not just what you read the first time you look at the poem.

Metaphors and negative connotations were the two things that stood out to me the most in this poem. They showed that while the speaker believes that her mother was amazing and full of courage, she doesn’t feel like she got the same courage from her mum when she died, the speaker wishes that she had been given her mum's courage instead of her jewelry or another of her mother's material belongings.