Sibylla Palmifera

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Today I had time to go through some books and catalogues collected over the years. Among the catalogues this is one of my favourite, got it @ The Walker Liverpool in 2003, yes some time ago.
He often wrote poems about his paintings


Sibylla Palmifera

by: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)

Under the arch of Life, where love and death,
Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw
Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe,
I drew it in as simply as my breath.
Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath,
The sky and sea bend on thee, -which can draw,
By sea or sky or woman, to one law,
The allotted bondman of her palm and wreath.
This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise
Thy voice and hand shake still, -long known to thee
By flying hair and fluttering hem, -the beat
Following her daily of thy heart and feet,
How passionately and irretrievably,
In what fond flight, how many ways and days!