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In ‘Poetry’ a wistful young woman sits with a golden lyre and unfurling scrolls, swathed in rich fabrics against a background of ancient architecture and coloured blossom. Alma-Tadema’s paintings cleverly combine the academic notions of classical art and the romantic aesthetics popular among the Victorian middle class. Roman subjects were often an excuse for lavish fantasies and sumptuous decoration. A pendant to the painting of 'Prose,' this work depicts the personification of 'Poetry' plucking a lyre as she reaches for a scroll to read. It is numbered 'opus CCIII (203)'