ante Gabriel Rossetti's "For a Venetian Pastoral by Giorgione (In the Louvre)" exemplifies the artist's obsession with temporality by means of suggesting a moment in time when the ephemeral and the immortal meet in a way similar to that of a typological image. When Rossetti viewed Giorgione's picture in the Louvre "he wrote to his brother that it was 'so intensely fine that I condescended to sit down before it and write a sonnet. You have heard me rave about the engraving before, and I fancy have seen it yourself. There is a woman, naked, at one side, who is dipping a glass vessel into a well; and in the centre two men and another naked woman, who seem to have paused for a moment in playing on the musical instruments'" (As quoted in the Rossetti Archive [For a Venetian Pastoral]). The poem begins with the speaker commenting "upon the figures' action by means of imperatives that serve in the manner of stage directions" (Landow).
Water, for anguish of the solstice — nay,
But dip the vessel slowly, — nay, but lean
And hark how at its verge the wave sighs in
The speaker's language allows a sense of quiet and stillness to permeate the poem, so that the only audible sound is the hush of the voices and the slow trickle of the woman pouring water. The language also invokes the imminent passing of time as seen in such diction choices as "anguish of the solstice," which, in addition to being a call for water to quench the thirst, also represents the threshold between two seasons — the limbo between one fact or event and another. This idea is also portrayed by use of the word "verge," which literally means "something that borders, limits, or bounds" (Webster Dictionary). In this case, verge suggests the borders of a moment in time. Within the last line, the speaker states "the wave sighs in reluctant," implying that, while on the threshold or verge between these two moments, the speaker sighs in want for the preservation of this fleeting instant of time. Through Rossetti's depiction of Giorgione's painting "as a moment of secular and sensual illumination, he recreates that moment by detailing the things whose touch and sound make it so perfect" (Landow). The remainder of the poem follows this example.
Hush! Beyond all depth away
The heat lies silent at the brink of day:
Now the hand trails upon the viol-string
That sobs, and the brown faces cease to sing,
Sad with the whole of pleasure. Whither stray
Her eyes now, from whose mouth the slim pipes creep
And leave it pouting, while the shadowed grass
Is cool against her naked side? Let be: —
Say nothing now unto her lest she weep,
Nor name this ever. Be it as it was, —
Life touching lips with immortality.
After providing the reader with the quiet sounds of water, the speaker now enters into a moment of complete silence — "Hush! Beyond all depth away the heat lies silent at the brink of day." By using the words "brink" and "day," Rossetti continues to illustrate the transient nature of this moment. He uses "brink" in relation to "verge" to illustrate the fact that the moment is about to cease in existence and pass into another place in time, and provides "day" as an example of one of these moments that continually passes. Thus disturbing the silence and materializing the brink between two moments, "now the hand trails upon the viol-string that sobs, and the brown faces cease to sing." Rossetti sensually illuminates the reader with the beautiful sound of music, providing an example of a moment that creates a sense of sadness within the psyches of those involved. The sadness derives, however, from the bliss of the moment's beauty — "sad with the whole of pleasure" — because, while it is enjoyable, the pleasure serves as nothing but a reminder of the transient nature of all things beautiful.
In the sonnet, Rossetti suggests that the figures in Giorgione's painting do not remain conscious of their aesthetic condition. In addition, his portrayal of the woman dipping the water vessel emphasizes the characteristic Victorian gaze: "Whither stray her eyes now, from whose mouth the slim pipes cr