Isabella or The Pot of Basil: Influence on society and why its not very popular today

Isabella, or, the Pot of Basil is narrative poem by John Keats about the love obsession of Isabella, a young beautiful girl of a wealthy family who falls in love with Lorenzo, a trade servant. Staged in the middle ages, the poem follows the growing love between Lorenzo and Isabella, and the growing danger that their love brings. With social status at such extreme opposites, the two lovers keep their love secret in order to avoid the wrath of Isabella’s family, who plan to marry off Isabella to “some high noble and his olive trees”. Although the last sections of the poem finds Lorenzo, Isabella, and her evil brothers all at different ends of a great tragedy, Isabella and Lorenzo’s dangerous and passionate romance have been a popular subject for romanticism art and have influenced several great painters in a number of different styles. The most noted painters on the topic of Isabella are Millais, Hunt, Waterhouse, and Alexander.

           

           John Everett Millais (1829-1896) painted Lorenzo and Isabella, an episode depicting Lorenzo (in pink) and Isabella early on in the poem, eating a dinner. Millais used symbolism to convey the future story that plays out in Keat’s poem; For example, Lorenzo is giving Isabella a blood orange, symbolizing his future death. The brother across from Isabella is cruelly kicking the dog at Isabella’s side, which makes him a clear antagonist. Millais was a poet, artist, and critic and more can be read about him and his Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood on this site.

William Holeman Hunt’s(1827-1910) painting Isabella and the Pot of Basil is further along in the poem. The painting depicts Isabella in a nightgown, surrounded by light and colorful house decorations, cradling the pot of basil. Like Millais, Hunt was a poet, artist, and critic in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and filled his paintings with symbolism and detail. In the painting, red roses next to the pot symbolize the love of Lorenzo and Isabella while a skull ebbed in the pot symbolize Lorenzo’s undignified end. Isabella wears a white nightgown, symbolizing her purity of heart (or maybe that’s the only color nightgown she had?).

Does Hunt’s Isabella look a bit heavy for a broken-hearted lover wasting away for want of Lorenzo? If you thought so, here’s the reason: Hunt was a realist and preferred painting real-to-life. At the time, the only model he had was his wife, and she was pregnant with their son. Thus, pregnant, pining Isabella mourns life away in Hunt’s painting.

            John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) portrayed his version of Isabella more dreary and loyal to the “pining Isabella” description of Keat’s poem. A pale Isabella clutches the earthen pot stiffly, looking just as woeful and inanimate as her surroundings. The dark colors of the painting bring out the despondent feel of the work. Waterhouse was also part of the PRB group and shared the group’s philosophy on artwork.

John White Alexander(1856-1915)  also recreated Isabella and the Pot of Basil. Alexander’s style is the least symbolic but does not lose detail, portraying Isabella alone in the dark with her pot of basil. Of all the works on this topic, Alexander’s Isabella portrays the tragedy darkest. Alexander was not among the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, instead starting out as a cartoonist for newspapers.

Although Isabella, or the Pot of Basil stirred up some activity in art, it apparently did not achieve great influence points in music or make any great ballads. As far as society and culture goes, very few obvious, straight-from-John-Keats materials exsist today. There are a few works that have sprung from romantic roots and have some characteristics of Isabella's story, but not many are really trully drawn from Keat's Isabella. I imagine that the reason there are fewer poems, stories, songs, and movies illustrating a theme like Isabella is because the concept wouldn't sell well, or at least not as well with a love-obsessed maiden who simply withers away than a vengful heroine who blazes 9mm 's at every enemy she sees. Or if it doesn't sell well, it’s simply not a pleasant topic. Isabella and Lorenzo, while a classic story of forbidden love, takes a very unpleasant turn once Isabella grabs a knife. And while the thought of Isabella’s eternal devotion to her dead Lorenzo is quite the romantic theme for any romanticist or transcendentalist, Isabella stops getting pity at a certain point. If John Keats where around today, he could have made much more money if Isabella threw down her basil pot and started carrying a sword. Uma Thurman could be Isabella, and we could have Kill Bill 3.   

Obsessive Isabella

On my first reading of “Isabella, or, The Pot of Basil”, I found the story to be the regular Romantic-style poem: full of good, evil, strong symbolism, extreme emotions, life and death, ever-sacred nature, and the ever-powerful Love. “Isabella” is a history of the love between Isabella and Lorenzo, and how their love escalades to become a supernatural force in the lovers lives. I interpreted the story of Isabella and Lorenzo’s love to be a parable of how a good obsession slowly became corrupt and thus a bad thing to the lovers. For example, in the beginning of the poem its evident Isabella and Lorenzo strongly love each other. Lines like

“but her full shape would all his seeing fill;

And his continual voice was pleasanter

  To her, than noise of trees or hidden rill;”

In section 2 illustrates that the two lovers thought often of each other. Isabella in particular loves Lorenzo so much that it begins to become a bad thing. Throughout the rest of the poem the two become so strongly attached that lack of seeing each other leads to sickness. Isabella becomes ill without Lorenzo :

“until sweet isabella’s untouched cheek

Fell sick within the rose’s just domain,

Fell thin as a young mother’s…(seeking to cool infants pain)”

But on Lorenzo’s return:

“Love! Thou art leading me from wintry cold,

Lady! Thou leadest me to summer clime,”

…  and the two fall into greater love and Isabella is all better again. However, Love has just gained a negative side for Isabella. Their obsession with the other even turns the attention of Isabella’s older brothers and they kill Lorenzo out of cruelty for their sister. Being the only living lover, Isabella sorrowfully awaits the return of Lorenzo, and over time Isabella “by gradual decay from beauty fell” and becomes pale and sickly. Isabella’s discovery of Lorenzo’s corpse cues the final turn of Love from good to bad; instead of mourning and returning to her life to recover, Isabella returns with her lover’s head in a pot of basil, which she obsesses over day and night and waters with her tears. When even that is taken from her, Isabella’s love obsession finally destroys her: she withers away, to “die a death too lone and incomplete, now they have ta’en away her basil sweet”. The last appearance of Isabella in the poem finds her “asking for her lost basil amorously”. At this point Isabella is insane for want of love and so dies.

            In this way I see the poem “Isabella” as a parable of how a good obsession slowly turned and became a bad thing. Check out the song “Isabella” by Natake. The lyrics to the song are the last two sections of the poem set to haunting music that very well illustrates the emotions of Isabella after her basil pot is taken from her. The video exemplifies a different perspective and feel of the tragedy of Isabella and Lorenzo.

O Melancholy, turn thine eyes away!
O Music, Music, breathe despondingly!
O Echo, Echo, on some other day,
From isles Lethean, sigh to us - O sigh!
Spirits of grief, sing not your «Well-a-way!»
For Isabel, sweet Isabel, will die;
Will die a death too lone and incomplete,
Now they have taen away her Basil sweet.


And so she pined, and so she died forlorn,
Imploring for her Basil to the last.
No heart was there in Florence but did mourn
In pity of her love, so overcast.
And a sad ditty of this story born
From mouth to mouth through all the country passd:
Still is the burthen sung - O cruelty,
To steal my Basil-pot away from me!

"Isabella & the pot of basil"

This video I found on YouTube (Isabella & the pot of basil) and it is by JanuszMadej. The video is a short story, which is based off of John Keats’ "Isabella: or, the Pot of Basil." Now this video does not go straight off of his poem. It has major differences. One thing that is different is the time period. Elvis was never alive during John Keats life time. Something else different was the brothers. Although in the poem the brothers are greedy and evil, I think that, in the video, they are made greedier and more evil in the video. Beside the differences in the story they both go on the same line. They both had two people fall in love as if that’s not common in videos), they both had the brother kill  Lorenzo, they both have him appear in a dream to Isabella, and they both plant the head in the basil and it grows so much that the brother steal it and look what’s inside. I think that this video gives us a better understanding of how people take the Romantics Poets’ poems and turn them in to movies. Some of those movies are, Harry Potter, Inception, Star Wars, and even more. We don’t realize that poems have to do so much with today’s movies. And not only movies but also music. The Romantics Poets have also made new words. And the new words can go in to videos like Isabella & the pot of basil. There is always more to know about the poets and poems and how the affects our lives and culture. That is why this video is good to understand more about poems. There are two part to the short story. Please watch and enjoy Isabella & the pot of basil.

Part one:

Part Two:

Poem and Painting

John Keats’ poem "Isabella; or The Pot of Basil" was published in 1820, and the poem is about a lady, Isabella, and her lover, Lorenzo. Her brothers didn’t like them meeting together because they wanted her to marry a rich man. So they took him down and outside the city to kill him, and had they told her that they sent Lorenzo for a long business trip. When months past she was still in love with him and asked her brothers when he would return. The brothers gave her no answers; so Isabella called out to her lover asking him to return. He appeared to her in her dreams saying that he was killed by her brothers and then also told her where she could find his body. When she awoke she went outside the city to a forest and found his body. She cut off his head and put it in a pot and put basil on top. The plant was very big and made the brothers wandered what was in the pot of basil. The brothers pulled out the basil and saw the head of Lorenzo. The brothers then realized that she knew they killed Lorenzo. The brothers then took the pot and ran out to another town, never to be seen again. I believe that the poem is about a true symbol of undying love. And that undying love was showed in a painting titled Isabella and The Pot of Basil (painting showed below). That was painted in 1868 by a man named William Holman Hunt. The painting shows Isabella hugging the pot of basil that Lorenzo is buried in after he was murdered. When Hunt was drawing another painting, a scene where Lorenzo was working for her brothers, he came up with the idea to paint this one. When Hunt’s wife died he made this painting a memorial to his wife. He did that by making Isabella’s features like his wife. I think the painting shows us how Isabella was sad because of her loss. You can see next to her hair, there is the flourishing plant of basil. John Keats said that is flourished by her tears but I think it also flourished by her undying love because even after death her love made them grow.

Stylish Writing

John Keats's writing style;

Here is a link to a website that has some information about his John Keats's writing.

Keats's style and techniques he uses to write his poetry played a huge roll in romantic poetry. The unfortunate and terrible mishaps that happend to Keats's throughtout his lifed actually helped his writing in very postivie ways. He was able to channel all of his emotions into his poetry, allowing people to connect with him and relate or atleast understand what he was dealing with and going through. Basically Keats chose to write about the things his family and parents lacked, which was structure and romance.Thus stating he had a very unique sense of style of writing. Keat's has a very elaborate word choice and is talented with using vocabulary that can create images in your head to help guide you through his reading. This is very helpful because at times his poetry could be very tricky to read and you really need that visual imagery to help you grasp the real concept. Keats's writing was a little more risque than someone people liked, and that worked in his bennefit sometimes, and then other times it brought him down. People criticized him all the time because he was not afraid to tell it how it is, and speak his crazy mind, but he also had readers who kept wanting more from him because his writing could easily keep your attention. It took some time for people to fully understand the man and his writings, and after a while other poets began to use his style of writing, making it not so crazy (out there) but more common. Keats's had started a new phenomenon of romantic poetry. His writing was influentional, infact, he is known to be one of the most unfluentional poets in the Romantic era. Through all the stress his life held, writing was the one thing that helped him cope, he was able to say exactly how he felt and not be judged or told different because his writing was free. Keats has influenced the writiters of today, young and old, and im sure will continue to unfluence many more after them.

 His writing is simply legendary.

John Keats's "Isabella: or, the Pot of Basil"

To check out John Keats's "Isabella: or, the Pot of Basil" online for free, click HERE!



"Isabella or the Pot of Basil" is one of John Keats's most popular poems. Keats often associates love and pain both in his life and in his poetry, this poem is a great example of both. Here is a brief summary of the poem: The poem tells the tale of a young woman whose family intends to marry her to "some high noble and his olive trees", but the twist beings when she actually falls in love with the servant boy, Lorenzo, who is also one of her brother's workers. The brothers knew that they had met, but wishing to avoid a scandal, they pretended to have seen nothing. Finally they guide Lorenzo to a small area outside of the city, and there murder him. They tell their sister that Lorenzo had been sent on a long journey, but when days, weeks, even months, had passed, she could no longer restrain her uneasiness, and asked when he would return. The brothers tell Isabella nothing of the truth and try to lead her to believe that Lorenzo left on his own and do not know why he has yet to return. Isabella kept her love for so long, is a victim to fears and doubts, but in her solitude she called on her lover, making piteous moan that he would return. And he did, but only when she had fallen asleep, Lorenzo's ghost appeared, pale, blood-drabbled, with garments rent and mouldy, and addressed her: "Isabella, I can never return to you, for on the day we saw each other last your brother’s slew me." (Slew meaning murdered.) Isabella, slightly knowing of where Lorenzo's body lies because of him telling her in her sleep, searches for the grounds where Lorenzo's body lies, and ends up finding Lorenzo, dead just like he had told her. She then cut's his head off the body and buries Lorenzo's head in an old pot full of basil which Isabella tends to obsessively, while mourning the loss of her one true love. One day her brothers return and steal the pot that she had buried Lorenzo's head inside. Leaving Isabella feeling dead inside, sad and so lost with nothing left.