"Conscientious Objector" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Conscientious Objector” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (literature text, p. 266)

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 whereabouts 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.