isabella; or, The Pot of Basil

Question 1

fair Isabel,

Answer 1

poor simple Isabel!

Question 2

Lorenzo, a young palmer

Answer 2

in Love’s eye!

Question 3

with every mourn

with every eve

Answer 3

their love grew tenderer

deeper and tenderer still

Question 4

because her face was turned to the same skies;

Answer 4

and with sick longing all the night outwear

Question 5

‘O may I never see another night,

Answer 5

Lorenzo, if thy lips breathe not love’s tune

Question 6

but alas

Answer 6

honeyless days and days did he let pass

Question 7

and with sick longing

to hear her morning-step

Answer 7

all the night outwear

upon the stair

Question 8

and in his heart he inwardly did pray

but still the ruddy

Answer 8

for power to speak;

stifled his voice

Question 9

a dreary night of love

Answer 9

and misery

Question 10

even bees, the little almsmen of spring-bowers

Answer 10

know there is richest juice in poison flowers

Question 11

with her two brothers

enriched from

Answer 11

this fair lady dwelt

ancestral merchandise

Question 12

why were

Answer 12

they proud?

Question 13

red lined

Answer 13

accounts

Question 14

money

Answer 14

bags

Question 15

‘twas their plan to coax her by

Answer 15

degrees to some high noble and his olive trees

Question 16

to kill Lorenzo and

Answer 16

there bury him

Question 17

so the two brother’s and

Gurgles through straitened banks and

Answer 17

their murdered man

still doth fan itself with dancing bulrush

Question 18

there was Lorenzo slain and buried in

Answer 18

there in that forest did his great love cease

Question 19

she weeps alone for

Answer 19

pleasures not to be

Question 20

and then instead of love,

Answer 20

O misery

Question 21

but selfishness,

Answer 21

love’s cousin

Question 22

and she had died

Answer 22

in drowsy ignorance

Question 23

sweet spirit, thou

Answer 23

hast schooled my infancy

Question 24

the thing was vile with

and yet they knew

Answer 24

green and livid spot

it was Lorenzo’s face

Question 25

and so she pined, and so she died

Answer 25

forlorn, imploring for her Basil to last

Question 26

she withers, like a palm

Answer 26

cut by an Indian for its juicy balm

Question 27

Give key structural features

Answer 27

• opening epithet forewarns the tragic fall from grace for Isabella
• narrative poem adapted from another poem long extended reflecting the progression of suffering of Isabella (prolonged)
• cyclical nature to Isabella’s mourning as she asks about the whereabouts of her ‘pot of basil’. Lorenzo is taken from her not once, but twice.
  Vision gives Isabella knowledge/agency. It could be argued that she becomes stronger as she is determined to find Lorenzo’s body and has transitioned from fulfilling the stereotype of the submissive, yet beautiful lover.

Question 28

what is the main idea of this poem?

Give quotations that support this

Answer 28

main theme in poem is the contrast of cold hatred and concern for family honour with the warmth and passion of young love
‘money bags’
‘ancestral merchandise’
‘coax by degrees to some high noble and his olive trees’
‘there love grew tenderer and tenderer still’

Question 29

what is the main idea of this poem?
Give quotations that support this
AOT that support this

Answer 29

main theme in poem is the contrast of cold hatred and concern for family honour with the warmth and passion of young love
‘money bags’ TRAGIC VILLIANS
‘ancestral merchandise’ POWER
‘coax by degrees to some high noble and his olive trees’ POWER
‘there love grew tenderer and tenderer still’ SUFFERING,
‘sick longing’
‘Love’s eye’ - they are targets, victims of love. capitalization of love highlights the consequence of chasing it
‘alas! when passion is both meek and mild!’ BLINDNESS
and to his heart he inwardly did pray for power to speak’ TRAGIC VICTIM

Question 30

Dramatic methods

Answer 30

• natural imagery
• supernatural imagery
• reversal of fortune
• anagnorisis
• fatal flaws
• blindness