Isabella or The Pot of Basil - John Keats
A Tale of Love, Loss, and Tragic Devotion
Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!
Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye!
They could not in the self-same mansion dwell
Without some stir of heart, some malady;
They could not sit at meals but feel how well
It soothed each to be the other by;
They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep
But to each other dream, and nightly weep.
With every morn their love grew tenderer,
With every eve deeper and tenderer still;
He might not in house, field, or garden stir,
But her full shape would all his seeing fill;
And his continual voice was pleasanter
To her than noise of trees or hidden rill;
Her lute-string gave an echo of his name,
She spoilt her half-done broidery with the same.
... [Excerpted for brevity] ...
“Ah! wherefore all this wormy circumstance?
Why linger at the yawning tomb so long?
O for the gentleness of old Romance,
The simple plaining of a minstrel’s song!
Fair reader, at the old tale take a glance,
For here, in truth, it doth not well belong
To speak:—O turn thee to the very tale,
And taste the music of that vision pale.”
[Public Domain: Original poem is longer; these stanzas are selected highlights.]
John Keats’s “Isabella or The Pot of Basil” is based on a story from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, adapted through Keats’s Romantic lens. It recounts the tragic love between Isabella, a gentle young woman, and Lorenzo, one of her brothers’ employees. The two fall passionately for each other, but their love is deemed unacceptable by Isabella’s ambitious brothers, who value commercial gain over romantic devotion.
When the brothers discover the secret affair, they lure Lorenzo away and murder him to prevent any perceived social or financial disgrace. Isabella, left in agonizing grief, is guided by a dream to find Lorenzo’s buried body. After she takes his head and places it within a pot of basil, she tends to this plant obsessively, watering it with her tears. The basil becomes a symbol of her unending devotion, a hidden shrine containing the remains of her lost love. The brothers, horrified to learn the secret of the pot, steal it from her, and her heartbreak deepens until she withers away, longing for her beloved.
Keats presents a world where tenderness clashes with ruthless ambition, and love is sacrificed to greed. He shapes Boccaccio’s tale into a quintessential Romantic narrative, emphasizing powerful emotion, tragedy, and the fusion of the beautiful with the macabre. The lush poetic language, especially Keats’s use of vivid sensory details, turns a ghastly act into an elegiac story of devotion and despair. Isabella’s grief, as she clings to her basil pot, contrasts poignantly with her brothers’ cold, calculating nature, showing how commercial pursuits can corrupt the purest affections.
Ultimately, “Isabella or The Pot of Basil” warns of the destructive power of materialism and underscores the cruelty of those who value profit above love. Like many Romantic works, it exalts deep feeling and empathy, even as it outlines the brutality of the world. Though tragic in outcome, Isabella’s love offers a brief glimpse of untainted passion, standing as a testament to the intensity and fragility of human relationships.
Key points
• Highlights the tension between love and greed
• Emphasizes emotional depth and Romantic ideals
• Illustrates Keats’s lush, sensuous poetic style
• Reminds us of the destructive consequences of material ambition
• Stands as a poignant tale of devotion and tragic fate