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‘Isabella, or The Pot of Basil’

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

‘Isabella, or The Pot of Basil’, a narrative poem by Keats, written 1818, published 1820.

The poem is based on a story in Boccaccio's Decameron. The worldly, ambitious brothers of Isabella intend that she shall marry a nobleman. When they discover her love for the humble Lorenzo they lure him away, murder him, and bury his body in a forest. His ghost then appears to Isabella and tells her where he is buried. She finds his body, severs the head, and places it in a pot with a plant of basil over it. Her brothers, observing how she cherishes the plant, steal the pot, discover the mouldering head, and fly, conscience-striken, into banishment. Isabella mourns her loss, pines away, and dies.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "‘Isabella, or The Pot of Basil’." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "‘Isabella, or The Pot of Basil’." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-IsabellaorThePotofBasil.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "‘Isabella, or The Pot of Basil’." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-IsabellaorThePotofBasil.html

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