Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

THE POET hath the child’s sight in his breast

And sees all new. What oftenest he has viewed,

He views with the first glory. Fair and good

Pall never on him, at the fairest, best,

But stand before him, holy and undressed

In week-day false conventions, such as would

Drag other men down from the altitude

Of primal types, too early dispossessed.

Why, God would tire of all his heavens as soon

As thou, O godlike, childlike poet, didst,

Of daily and nightly sights of sun and moon!

And therefore hath He set thee in the midst,

Where men may hear thy wonder’s ceaseless tune,

And praise His world forever, as thou bid’st.