Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Gordon Parks

¶ … Courage that my Mother Had" by Edna St. Vincent Millay and "The Funeral" by Gordon Parks. Specifically it will discuss the literary devices the poets use to help the reader understand the subject of death and dying. Poetry is full of effective literary devices such as simile, metaphor, rhyme, and meter that help create vivid pictures in the poem and help the reader identify with the words. These two works graphically illustrate the pain of losing a loved one with their use of poetic devices and raw emotions.

Both of these poems concern death, specifically the death of a parent, which is one of the most difficult kinds of death to deal with. Millay's poem concerns the death of her mother, and she laments her lack of courage, something she wishes she had inherited from her mother. She uses simile "courage like a rock" to indicate the strength of her mother's courage, and by using figurative language, likens it to granite as well. By using these devices, she makes it quite clear she envies her mother's courage, and feels she has little of her own. He only uses twelve lines to convey these images, but they are extremely powerful and memorable because of her use of these devices. The reader feels her pain and understands her anguish and need for "courage" of her own.

Parks' poem is also about the loss of a parent, but nine lines give more information than Millay's twelve lines, if that is possible. Parks has returned home for the funeral of his father, and he notes it is after many "snows" or years away. Like most adults, he sees his hometown with fresh eyes, noting how everything looks smaller as you get older. He writes, "Raging rivers I once swam trickled now like gentle streams" (Parks). This use of simile is similar to Millay's, in that it takes something from the natural world (granite or a river) and uses a simile to describe as something completely different. They indicate how childish illusions often remain with people through adulthood, and it takes a major event, such as the death of a parent, for the truth to be understood. It also indicates how people often take their parents for granted until they are gone. Millay wants her mother's courage, but it is too late, and Parks realizes that many of his illusions of childhood are incorrect, and again, it is too late to correct any of those illusions he had about his father.

Millay also uses rhythm and rhyme to convey messages in her poem. The first and third and second and fourth lines rhyme with each other in a very common poetic rhyming pattern. Some of the lines use a little "poetic license" in their rhyming, (for example, grave with have), which shows she was also concerned with how the poem appeared on the page, as well as how it sounded when read out loud. The words look like they rhyme, and so they give the illusion of rhyming even if they do not have the exact same sounds. This is an interesting device because it indicates the author was looking at every aspect of the poem and thought long and hard about how to use words to convey meaning, emotion, and loss.

In contrast, Parks does not worry about rhyme; he simply uses meter and the rhythm of the words to convey meaning and emotion. Millay speaks about her mother throughout the poem, but Parks only uses three lines to show his father has passed away. Millay openly admires her mother, while it seems there was tension underneath the surface between Parks and his father. He seems to be watching events from the outside looking in, giving the illusion of emotional detachment, while Millay is clearly distraught and overcome by the loss of her mother. By using personification indirectly, Parks likens his father to a giant, while Millay prefers to instead concentrate on her mother's mental qualities and strengths. By looking at the many poetic devices in these two poems, it becomes clear that each poet can use the same device very differently to create memorable and vastly differing poems.

Parks also exaggerates the "weight" of his giant of a father, noting it took one hundred men to carry his casket. Of course this is figurative, he could not have possibly weighed that much, but Parks uses this analogy to get the message across, that he will never live up to the giant that was his father. Both of these poets show their love for their parents, but also show how much they admired them and may even have been afraid of them. Millay admires her mother's courage, while Parks admired the "hugeness" that was his father, implying that everything about him was large, impressive, and even intimidating. Parks does not use as much emotion as Millay, and yet, it is clear that he is grieving and that nothing will ever be the same now that his father is gone. He implies the hills will keep on shrinking and childhood memories will continue to be overcome with adult realties.