Edna St. Vincent Millay The Courage That My Mother Had

1. Edna St. Vincent MillayThe Courage That My Mother Had By: Jason Gamble

2. Born and Family • Born in 1892 in Rockland, Maine • Cora Buzzelle Millay • Henry Tolman Millay

3. Schooling • Earned scholarship to Vassar College for writing Renascene • Kept writing poems at Vassar • Made plays at Vassar • Provided different sources of information (ex. Culture)

4. Relationships • Included: • Poet Arthur Davison Ficke • Literary critic Edmund Wilson

5. Marriage • In 1923 in New York, met businessman Eugen Boissevain at a party • Married later in same year • Respected and supported each others beliefs

6. Influence • Mom because: • Raised her alone after divorce • Became an independent person • Looked into her interests

7. How and When She Died • Working on poetry collection • Fatal Heart Attack • Died on October 19, 1950 in her home in Austerlitz

8. The Courage That My Mother Had Poem 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.

9. Poetic Device • Four Line Stanza • Example: “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.” • Final words of first and third lines rhyme • Final words of second and fourth line rhyme 4

10. Poetic Device • Iambic Tetrameter • Example: “ The golden brooch my mother wore” The gold / en brooch / my mother / er wore • Iambic referred to iambs, 2 syllables where first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed • Tetrameter shows there are four segments (feet) in each line

11. Poetic Device • Song / Complete Thought • Example: “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.” • Song like quality when read aloud • Each stanza has complete thought

12. Common Theme • Memory • Example: “The golden brooch my mother wore She left behind for me to wear” • Brooch remembers both living mother and fact that she is dead • Remembers living mother who wore the brooch • Millay wouldn’t have brooch if mother didn’t die

13. Common Theme • Strength and Weakness • Example: “That courage like a rock, which she Has no more need of, and I have.” • Mother compared to granite, strong and long lasting • Millay needs mother’s courage • Millay also admits her fear

14. Theme • Courage always stays with you, even when you die. • Examples: “The courage that my mother had Went with her, and is with her still:” • “That courage like a rock, which she Has no more need of, and I have. • Both show how her mother still has courage even when she died. Courage

15. Interesting Facts • Bad health • Got into car crash in 1936 • Health got worse from there on

16. Interesting Facts • Always Busy • Never kept still • Won Pulitzer Prize in 1923 • Granted Honorary degree from Tufts University in 1925

17. Bibliography • "The Courage That My Mother Had." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary Ruby. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 78-89. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 30 May 2014.