Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/55

 WE ARE AS MAIDENS ONE AND ALL—1871

When Stevenson, in later years, was going over his youthful manuscripts, copying many of them, unquestionably with the intention of having them sooner or later find their way into print, he annotated the present manuscript with the significant ejaculation, "pooh-pooh!" This trenchant criticism, presumably due to the effeminate note in the imagery of the verses, strongly inclined us at first to follow the author's lead, and omit the poem from the present volume. But on further consideration it was thought best to let the verses take their place with the other compositions of their period; for while some readers may marvel at lines where human beings, it would seem, are compared to convent maidens, and Stevenson himself to a bashful bride, the poem has many appealing qualities, both in its phraseology and in its thought.

Especially notable is the picture of Death, who, cantering on his "great gray horse," suggests the engravings of Dürer and other old masters. In referring to Death as "that [ 47 ]