{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-look-of-death-is-both-severe-and-mild",
 "title": "The Look of Death Is Both Severe and Mild",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (Hitherto Unpublished)",
 "book_slug": "poems-hitherto-unpublished",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 17,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1921,
  "venue": "Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (Hitherto Unpublished) (1921)",
  "note": "The volume's title page states that these poems were hitherto unpublished, and no earlier printing of them has been established. The 1921 date is the year of first printing, but not necessarily of this exact copy: the volume states that it is a complimentary edition struck from the same type forms as the Bibliophile Society's edition of the same year.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The look of Death is both severe and mild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the words of Death are grave and sweet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He holds ajar the door of his retreat;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hermitage of life, it may be styled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He pardons sinners, cleanses the defiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And comfortably welcomes weary feet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The look of Death is both severe and mild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And you that have been loving pleasure wild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long known the sins and sorrows of the street,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lift up your eyes and see, Death waits to greet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a kind parent a repentant child.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The bugle sounds the muster roll,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blacksmith blows the roaring coal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The look of Death is both severe and mild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}