Poems, by Robert Louis Stevenson, hitherto unpublished/The look of Death is both severe and mild
THE LOOK OF DEATH IS BOTH SEVERE AND MILD—1875
In commenting, in the previously published Bibliophile edition of Stevenson's poems, on the poem beginning—
Death, to the dead forevermore,
A King, a God, the last and best of friends,
the editor fell into an error in calling it the earliest of the poems devoted exclusively to the theme of Death "as the ultimate and fulfilling peace." It was indeed the earliest of such published poems, but the present verses, reflecting the same point of view, antedate the others by at least a brief time, evidence of which is found in the original draft of the previously published poem, where Stevenson used the line, "And comfortably welcomes weary feet," one of the best verses in the present rondeau.
The opening stanza of this poem gives Stevenson's most successful presentation of his conception of Death. In the adjective "severe" is the intimation of the joys of life, forgotten when death appears; while in the antithetical adjective "mild," Death is shorn of its terror.
THE LOOK OF DEATH IS BOTH SEVERE AND MILD
The look of Death is both severe and mild,
And all the words of Death are grave and sweet;
He holds ajar the door of his retreat;
The hermitage of life, it may be styled;
He pardons sinners, cleanses the defiled,
And comfortably welcomes weary feet.
The look of Death is both severe and mild,
And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.
And you that have been loving pleasure wild,
Long known the sins and sorrows of the street,
Lift up your eyes and see, Death waits to greet,
As a kind parent a repentant child.
The bugle sounds the muster roll,
The blacksmith blows the roaring coal;
The look of Death is both severe and mild,
And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.