Conscientious Objector

Pacifism in America in the 1930s

Poem

By: Edna St. Vincent Millay

Date: 1934

Source: Millay, Edna St. Vincent. Collected Poems. New York; Harper and Row, 1956.

About the Author: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) was among the most celebrated American female poets of her generation. In 1923, Millay became the first female winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Her work was widely published during her lifetime and her poems, particularly her sonnets, have been the subject of significant academic study since her death.

INTRODUCTION

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a life-long poet and literary figure. Her first work was published when Millay was twenty years old, and the themes explored throughout her career were often contentious, including her explorations of female sexuality, feminism, pacifism, and the American justice system.

Millay moved to the Greenwich Village district of New York City in 1920. Greenwich Village had developed at that time into a significant community of artists, writers, and intellectuals, and it was a relative hotbed of political radicalism. Millay was politically active after she was established in Greenwich Village, not seeking elected office or a leadership role in any organization, but supporter of a number of radical causes.

A notable example of a Millay cause was her opposition to the 1927 execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrants and avowed anarchists who had been convicted in Boston of a robbery and subsequent murder on evidence that appeared to be significantly flawed. Millay's poem, 'Justice Denied in Massachusetts' captured the spirit of the protests that had engaged the attention of the radical aspects of American society.

In the 1930s, as the Great Depression gripped the United States in a prolonged period of economic stagnation, the focus of American government was the resolution of its pressing domestic problems. Public opinion in America favored isolationism with respect to the country's involvement in foreign disputes. Millay remained a committed pacifist during this period; her work "Conscientious Objector" was followed by a series of works where Millay comments upon the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the rise of fascism in Europe.

Millay was an influential thinker and writer throughout her entire career. Her poems sold remarkably well; the book of sonnets including "Conscientious Objector" sold over 35,000 copies within the first two weeks of its release in 1934. Millay was voted one of the ten most famous women in America in 1938; the United States Postal Service later issued a stamp in her honor.

PRIMARY SOURCE

    Conscientious Objector  
    I shall die, but
    that is all that I shall do for Death.
    I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
    I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
    He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
    business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
    But I will not hold the bridle
    while he clinches the girth.
    And he may mount by himself:
    I will not give him a leg up.
 
    Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,
    I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
    With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where
    the black boy hides in the swamp.
    I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
    I am not on his pay-roll.
 
    I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends
    nor of my enemies either.
    Though he promise me much,
    I will not map him the route to any man's door.
    Am I a spy in the land of the living,
    that I should deliver men to Death?
    Brother, the password and the plans of our city
    are safe with me; never through me Shall you be overcome.

SIGNIFICANCE

As a literary creation, Millay weaves together references in "Conscientious Objector" to world conflict and the duty of the conscientious objector not to involve themselves in any capacity with the military actions of any power. This portrayal by Millay of the role of the pacifist when faced with the threat of armed conflict can be taken as a metaphor for the position of the United States in relation to international armed conflicts in the early 1930s. It is clear that for Millay, a conscientious objector and a pacifist would remain disengaged and aloof from any struggle.

When Millay wrote this work in 1934, a conscientious objector under American law had to demonstrate an appropriate religious belief as the underlying basis for their objection to military service. Millay's depiction of the conscientious objector as one motivated by a personal moral belief as opposed to a strictly religious basis anticipated the United States Supreme Court's 1970 ruling, where the Court held that a conscientious objection could be sustained absent religious grounds.

A companion notion expressed by Millay is the sense of brotherhood among those who oppose fighting and the resultant cost of human life. This sentiment was a cornerstone of the pacifist movement to which Millay was aligned. The supporters of pacifism believed that theirs was a philosophy that was not limited to a nation; it was a concept that transcended all borders.

The rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s caused Millay and other pacifists to re-examine their world view. Fascism is a philosophy of government that places the interests of the nation-state ahead of those of the individual. Italy had been placed under a Fascist dictatorship by Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) by degrees in the early 1930s. The rise of Adolph Hitler (1889–1945) and his Nazi party in 1933 was the second example of the growth of fascism in Europe. The Spanish Civil War and the victory of the Fascist forces lead by General Francisco Franco (1892–1975) was a graphic example to American pacifists and isolationists alike that fascism posed a significant threat to personal freedoms and the security of the world. It had become apparent to Millay and others in America by 1939 that pacifism would be an inadequate response to the obvious ambitions of leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini.

In this context, "Conscientious Objector" takes on an additional significance. Millay expressed her opposition to the Spanish fascism in a series of poems published in 1939. She also became an advocate of an early entry by the United States into the European war that commenced in September 1939. Millay wrote poems commissioned by the United States government in 1941 to address various aspects of the war. The most powerful of these works was "Murder at Lidice," written in 1942 to describe the reprisal killings carried out by the German occupational forces in Lidice, Czechoslovakia, where members of the Czech underground had assisted in the killing of German Gestapo (secret police) chief Reinhardt Heydrich.

It is of interest that after World War II (1938–1945), Millay distanced herself artistically from these war works. She expressed the view that as they were essentially commissioned for wartime, they should have remained within the context of the war.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Bennett, Scott H. Radical Pacifism: the War Resisters League and Gandian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963. Syracuse, New York; Syracuse University Press, 2003.

Milford, Nancy. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York; Random House, 2001.

Periodicals

Cook, Blanche Weisen. "Women and Peace: The Legacy." Ms. Magazine. Winter 2006.

Web sites

California State University, Stanislaus. "Perspectives in American Literature / Early 20th Century." January 7, 2003. ?http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/millay.html? (accessed May 29, 2006).