Elizabeth Barrett Browning - To Bettine, the Child-Friend of Goethe lyrics

I.  Bettine, friend of Goethe, Hadst thou the second sight— Upturning worship and delight  With such a loving duty To his grand face, as women will, The childhood 'neath thine eyelids still? II.  —Before his shrine to doom thee, Using the same child's smile That heaven and earth, beheld erewhile  For the first time, won from thee Ere star and flower grew dim and dead Save at his feet and o'er his head? III.  —Digging thine heart and throwing Away its childhood's gold, That so its woman-depth might hold  His spirit's overflowing? (For surging souls, no worlds can bound, Their channel in the heart have found.) IV.  O child, to change appointed, Thou hadst not second sight! What eyes the future view aright  Unless by tears anointed? Yea, only tears themselves can show The burning ones that have to flow. V.  O woman, deeply loving, Thou hadst not second sight! The star is very high and bright,  And none can see it moving. Love looks around, below, above, Yet all his prophecy is—love. VI.  The bird thy childhood's playing Sent onward o'er the sea, Thy dove of hope came back to thee  Without a leaf: art laying Its wet cold wing no sun can dry, Still in thy bosom secretly? VII.  Our Goethe's friend, Bettine, I have the second sight! The stone upon his grave is white,  The funeral stone between ye; And in thy mirror thou hast viewed Some change as hardly understood. VIII.  Where's childhood? where is Goethe? The tears are in thine eyes. Nay, thou shalt yet reorganize  Thy maidenhood of beauty In his own glory, which is smooth Of wrinkles and sublime in youth. IX.  The poet's arms have wound thee, He breathes upon thy brow, He lifts thee upward in the glow  Of his great genius round thee,— The childlike poet undefiled Preserving evermore The Child.