Question

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 nothing 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 Milla

Reread the poem. Look at the details in each stanza and write one to two sentences explaining the central idea of the poem.

Answer 1

The central idea of the poem is how her mother died and took her courage with her, something her child does not have. The child states how since she is dead she took it with her to her grave which is why they said she does not need it anymore. The mother left behind a golden brooch that she wore since it would remind her child of her even when she is gone. But the child wants her courage, not her brooch.