Sybilla Palmifella (The Soul's Beauty) Postcard

Painted in 1870 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, this beautiful painting portrays the 'Soul's Beauty', the title given by Rossetti to the sonnet he wrote to accompany it. "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!" Around the Lady Beauty flit butterflies, emblematic of the soul; she holds the palm of victory in her right hand.