eep and leave it pouting." The description "recalls, The Blessed Damozel whose emparadised state is transacted by a melancholy that arises because her lover is not with her" (Rossetti Archive). The Pre-Raphaelite woman then reclines in the shadowed grass, mourning for the loss of a moment so beautiful, and the speaker consequently instructs not to console her "lest she weep." Rossetti concludes the sonnet with a sententia regarding the nature of time and temporality: "Be it as it was, — life touching lips with immortality. " Such an illumination of the senses remains fleeting and cannot be preserved, and therefore acts as a reminder of the transience of all moments and all beings. However, Rossetti's creation of the sonnet itself serves as an ode to the moment, and he therefore finds a way to preserve it in its passing.
1. Transience was a subject that compelled Rossetti throughout his artistic career. In "Love and Hope", the forty-third sonnet of The House of Life, he desperately comments on the perfect moment and the loss of it through inevitable change.
Full many a withered year
Whirled past us, eddying to its chill doomsday;
And clasped together where the blown leaves lay,
We long have knelt and wept full many a tear.
Both "For a Venetian Pastorale" and "Love and Hope" utilize natural imagery and revolve around the same thematic structure. Why was the topic of temporality continually repeated throughout Rossetti's work? How does his use of natural imagery aid in expressing his concerns regarding time? Does the natural imagery in "The Woodspurge" (text) make any such connection to this theme?
2. Other Pre-Raphaelite works also discussed topics of time and transience. Compare "For a Venetian Pastoral" with Millais's Autumn Leaves. Is there a dichotomy between the written word and the painterly image? In what other ways did Pre-Raphaelite artists express their concerns regarding the passing of time? What societal influences could have shaped these concerns?
3. Many of the sonnets that Rossetti created for pictures foster an important connection between his multiple artistic media. In addition, many of them are in relation to his own painterly work, or make a personal comment regarding the work of another artist. However, "the sonnets also raise the issue of "translation" in a number of important ways: all of the sonnets are acts of "translation", but many deal explicitly with the morphologies of text and image." (Rossetti Archive). For example, the painting The Blessed Damozel portrays the situation of the damozel in heaven and her lover on earth slightly differently than the sonnet of the accompanying name does. In "For a Venetian Pastoral" it is possible that Giorgione had an interpretation that was very different from that of Rossetti (especially in regards to the woman). Does Giorgione hold responsibility for Rossetti's interpretation of his work? Comment on these differences and the issue of translation. What does this say about the sisterly arts?
4. Rossetti used typological structures in two ways. The first was to give Christian devotional images more power, and the second use was to employ these structures more as a model for his later works that dealt with issues of time and nostalgia. In short, Rossetti derived from structures of typology the idea of a moment or event and its connections with immortality and eternity. "In other words, typology provides repeated instances of situations in which the eternal brushes up against or reaches into human time" (Landow). What evidence of structures of typology remain in "For a Venetian Pastoral"?
Landow, George P. "Life touching lips with immortality": Rossetti's Temporal Structures. Accessed 17 October 2004.
McGann, Jerome J., ed. The Rossetti Archive. Accessed 3 October 2004. http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu:2020.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Collected Poetry and Prose. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
The Webster Dictionary On-line. Accessed 17 October 2004. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm.
Last modified 17 October 2004