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Courage | Introduction

“Courage” appears in Anne Sexton’s eighth and last collection of original poems, The Awful Rowing Toward God, published by Houghton Mifflin, in 1975, a year after her suicide. It is the seventh poem in the collection, most of which were initially written to be a part of her 1974 collection, The Death Notebooks. The religious tone of the Rowing poems, however, dictated another book. Like many of the poems in the collection, “Courage” universalizes the speaker’s experience, the “you” in the poem standing for everyone. Sexton marches the reader through the stages of life, detailing in a series of symbolic metaphors the courageous ways that human beings respond to adversity. In four free verse stanzas of crisp, fresh, sometimes surreal images, Sexton tells the story of a human being’s life from childhood to old age, showing the resilience of the human spirit and underscoring human beings’ power to endure even the most difficult circumstances.

Sexton wrote many of the poems in the collection when her mental health was deteriorating and her addiction to alcohol and tranquilizers was worsening. The forms of courage described in the poem were as much a part of Sexton’s own life as they are symbolic of others’. “Courage” addresses such typical Sexton subjects as the death wish, loneliness, a search for meaning, and the body in pain. One of the last acts Sexton performed before killing herself was proofreading the galleys for The Awful Rowing Toward God with her friend, poet Maxine Kumin.

Courage Summary

First Stanza
Sexton uses the title “Courage” as a theme to be explained. The “it” in the first stanza is courage, and the items listed after “it” are examples of courage. Sexton likens a small thing such as a “child’s first step” to a large thing, an earthquake, meaning that, both literally and metaphorically, taking a first step is a momentous occasion. In all of these examples, Sexton attempts to show the courageous aspect of everyday, often mundane, events. Being a confessional poet, Sexton is surely speaking to another part of herself; however, these events are universal as well, a point underscored by her use of the second person “we” and “you.” Also, most of these examples are taken from childhood, a time of exploration and firsts. It is also human beings’ most vulnerable time. This vulnerability often leads to suffering, something that Sexton points out as frequently repressed. This is what is meant by the lines “you drank their acid / and concealed it.” The “they” are those who hurt others, the bullies and abusers of the world.

Second Stanza
The second stanza begins with the one-word line, “Later,” signaling the time after childhood, late adolescence or early adulthood. The conditional “if” speaks to those who might have fought in the Vietnam War (“the death of bombs and... » Complete Courage Summary