in this somber poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay, we're introduced to the courage of the narrator's mother, strong as ''rock from New England quarried.'' Her mother had this courage her whole life, and she carried this gift with her to her death (though we don't find out she has died until later in the poem when the narrator says, ''The thing she took into the grave!'')
When the narrator's mother died, she left her daughter a gold brooch, or an ornate pin typically worn on the clothes, which is a nice memento but not what the woman really wishes she has. She wears the brooch and treasures it more than anything else she owns, but she claims she would give it all up to have just an ounce of her mother's courage, which her mother has taken to the grave with her.
The narrator concludes by saying that courage ''like a rock'' is no longer needed by her mother, but by the narrator herself.
