Conscientious Objector

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1934

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

Edna St. Vincent Millay, called Vincent by her sister Norma and others who knew her as part of the Greenwich Village scene, is often categorized with other LGBT+ poets like Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Dickinson and Millay’s “encoded lesbian content can be understood through a combination of extant biographical evidence [...] and a knowledge of homoerotic tropes created by or available to the poets in their lifetimes” (797). Millay was openly bisexual, especially during her time in Greenwich Village. Furthermore, the Princeton Encyclopedia editors describe how Millay, Moore, and other female poets published “poetry that challenged traditional gender conventions, demanded or predicted greater rights for women, protested patriarchal oppression, and asserted women’s empowerment” (481).

“Conscientious Objector” was published during the interwar period between World War I and World War II, and reflects tropes seen in other literary works from this era. For instance, the tropes of patriarchal oppression and masculinity associated with war can be found in Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, which was published 10 years prior to “Conscientious Objector.” The interwar period also saw the development of other modes of art aligning soldiers with death, such as the works of German painter Otto Dix and the poetry of Wilfred Owen. These works questioned the nationalistic forces that led to World War I, as well as colonialism, and expressed anxiety about rising nationalist French, German, and British sentiments preempting the second World War.

Historical Context

In “Conscientious Objector,” the speaker refers to death traveling in Cuba and the Balkans. In 1933, the year before the poem was published, the President of Cuba, Gerardo Machado y Morales, was overthrown by a combination of leftist student groups and a military junta (self-governing group of military officers). Machado y Morales was broadly unpopular, backed by the United States and favored wealthy landowners. Despite promises of reform, the junta, led by “Sergeant” Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, retained power and actually increased the authoritarian and classist restrictions initiated under the Morales regime. Despite this, the United States continued supporting the Batista government. The crackdowns instituted by the Morales regime, and the much more vicious actions of the Batista regime laid the groundwork for the Cuban Revolution. Throughout this period, the United States continued supporting those who best fulfilled its national interests, despite the lives lost from the powerful Batistianos’s (followers of Batista) involvement with American organized crime.

The Balkans, meanwhile, were the site of intense political and racial violence. After World War I, the region (consisting of southeastern Europe and including Greece, Turkey, Croatia, and former Yugoslavia and Serbia) was nationally, but not ethnically, unified. This led to racial conflict including the First and Second Balkan wars, as well as the continuing Armenian genocide. These conflicts found no real resolution, with a series of local kings abolishing constitutional power and invading their neighbors—including King Alexander of Yugoslavia and King Carol II of Romania. This resulted in the Balkan Pact: a peace treaty and mutual defense pact that notably excluded Bulgaria and Albania, two states at the center of the Balkan Peninsula. These excesses of state violence and unequal treaties were conducted towards nationalist ends, resulting in the relatively easy conquest of the region by the Axis during World War II.