Isabella or the pot of basil

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• romantic irony, a kind of literary self-consciousness and detachment, is used throughout; conveys Keats’ uncertainty about the poem, as well as his own views about capitalism, or Enlightenment, prevailing over Romanticism
• the brothers in the poem are meant to symbolise capitalism and greed within society vs. romanticism and beauty, as a result of Keats’ relationship with the radical publisher Lee Hunt who educated him on politics; also symbolises Keats’ struggle against the Enlightenment movement, as he was a Romantic.

Question 2

Introduction of both characters

Answer 2

“Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!
“Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye!”
- exclamatives emphasise the lovers’ feelings and looming tragedy
- name means worshipping god in Hebrew
- tragic looming love affair
- lower class: tragic trope outside natural order
- alludes to pilgrim in Romeo and Juliet, foreshadowing tragedy; personification of abstract noun conveys the force of love.

Question 3

form and imagery reflects love

Answer 3

“sick longing” - obsession
- love grows slowly and steadily; this is reflected in the pace of the poem
- natural imagery / pastoral imagery and links to music show sweetness of their love; romanticism and natural love

Question 4

their love in may?

Answer 4

“A whole long month of May in this sad plight
Made their cheeks paler by the break of June:”
“Honeyless days and days”
- imagery links with illness; pale
- setting contrasts with unrequited love
- passage of time; love continues - summer to winter - death
- pathetic fallacy conveys the progression of the relationship; connotations of seasons foreshadow tragedy

Question 5

Isabella’s upset cuz she loves him so much

Answer 5

“untouch’d cheek
Fell sick within the rose’s just domain”
“Fell thin as a young mother’s, who doth seek
By every lull to cool her infant’s pain:”
- ironic foreshadowing and allusion to how societal convention will keep the couple apart
- “rose’s just domain” - linked to romance; nurtures love
- maternal love - unconditional; also reflects gender roles in a patriarchal society; she will not be mother: tragic
- purity and innocence of Isabel enhances tragedy

Question 6

lorenzo scared to confess his feelings

Answer 6

“Alas! when passion is both meek and wild!”
“meekness of a child” - inferior
“So once more he had wak’d and anguished
A dreary night of love and misery”
- juxtaposition - typical of Keats; could show incompatability or competing emotions

Question 7

forshadowing of deaths; pale

Answer 7

"”She saw it waxing very pale and dead”
“i love thee” “My soul is to its doom”
- foreshadows doom

Question 8

pathetic fallacy to emphasise love - lorenzo’s pov

Answer 8

"”Love! thou art leading me from wintry cold,
Lady! thou leadest me to summer clime”
“happiness // Grew, like a lusty flower in June’s caress.”
- sexual connotations
- pathetic fallacy shows his life before Isabel and with her love

Question 9

risking everything to be together

Answer 9

“All close they met again, before the dusk”
“free from any whispering tale”
- repetition
- they are risking everything to be together; the Italian context provides distance from scandal
symbolises endings, loss and the coming of unpleasantness

Question 10

idea that love should be enjoyed in moment

Answer 10

“Were they unhappy then?—It cannot be—
Too many tears for lovers have been shed” “too many”
- repetition of too
- love should be enjoyed in the moment as their time together is short
- the hyphens separate the lovers
- romantic irony and repeated phrase creates tragedy as the lovers should have taken more initiative in being together

Question 11

metaphor of danger sweetening their love

Answer 11

“Even bees …
Know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.”
“Though Dido is silent in under-grove” - classical allusion as the poem echoes story of Queen of Carthage wooed by Aeneus; the gods ordered him to leave her, foreshadowing heartbreak.

Question 12

Initial description of the brothers

Answer 12

“enriched from ancestral merchandize”
“In torched mines and noisy factories”
- dangers of industrialisation and capitalist greed are highlighted; contrasted to the natural “dazzling river”
- patriarchal / fraternal power is clear
- ecocritisism

Question 13

corruption of brothers

Answer 13

"”And many once proud-quivered loins did melt / With blood from stinging whip- with hollow eyes”
- conveys predatory nature of the brothers, as they degrade the strongest of men as hunters become the hunted; post colonial
- metaphor: pleasant love will turn to pain; ease of cruelty is a criticism of capitalism which makes love difficult

Question 14

Why were they proud?

Answer 14

“Why were they proud? Because red-lin’d accounts
Were richer than the songs of Grecian years?—”
- repeated
- horrors / exploitation of capitalism are emphasised
- romantic irony, repetition and hypophora shows Keats’ views of capitalism
- benefits of capitalism are highlighted
- polysemantic words conveys literal account books and conveys figurative meaning of blood spilled to make the brothers prosper.

Question 15

highlight selfishness of brothers

Answer 15

“In hungry pride and gainful cowardice,
As two close Hebrews”
“florentines” - known for corruption and Machiavellian nature
- anti-semitism highlighted - Jews seen as greedy
- immoral so will prevent Isabella’s happiness

Question 16

plague imagery

Answer 16

“Hot Egypt’s pest
Into their vision covetous and sly!”
- Biblical allusion: brothers are sinning and likened to plague
- metaphor for how God plagued Egypt with locusts parallels how the brothers plague those who have ‘wronged’ them

Question 17

imagery of lily’s

Answer 17

"”And of thy lilies, that do paler grow” - flowers symbolise ill-fated love: lilies were popular funeral flowers and symbolise death. “

Question 18

the brothers are bitter have discovered his love

Answer 18

“bitter thoughts” “Should in their sister’s love be blithe and glad”
- they are jealous of the relationship; Isabella and Lorenzo’s love contrasts with her brothers’ feelings
- status
- the brothers’ feel bitter as they objectify Isabella as property
- coax - she won’t be happy
- olives connote peace; this ironic Biblical allusion shows hypocrisy and conveys how the brothers will come to regret their decision. “high noble and his olive-trees”

Question 19

plan to kill him; contrast with pleasent pastoral setting in next stanza

Answer 19

“Cut Mercy with a sharp knife to the bone”
“pleasant morning”
- the simplicity of the description of the plan implies the brothers’ lack of foresight; contrast with her dull knife
- Mercy personified to highlight what the brothers lack; foreshadows violence
- “men of cruel clay” links to industrialisation; implies lack of emotion

Question 20

get him to follow them to his death

Answer 20

“Lorenzo, courteously …
Bow’d a fair greeting to these serpents’ whine;
And went in haste”
- Ironically Lorenzo, a servant, is courteous, while the brothers are metaphorical serpents; deception
- Lorenzo can’t refuse the brothers so tragedy is inevitable; they could have just asked him to leave

Question 21

lorenzo talks to isabella last time before death

Answer 21

"”Goodbye! I’ll soon be back” - irony enhances tragedy as the reader is reminded of the life Lorenzo and Isabel could have had

Question 22

they kill him

Answer 22

“They pass’d the water
Into a forest quiet for the slaughter.” - like animal
- brothers “sick and wan” lorenzo “flush with love”
- contrast between beauty in nature / Lorenzo’s love vs “Sick and wan” brothers-
- “murder’d man” - past tense contrasts implies Lorenzo was doomed from the start

Question 23

simile to suggest brother’s sins will come back to haunt

Answer 23

“blood-hounds”
“Each richer by his being a murderer” - irony conveys the stupidity of prioritising capitalism over Romantic ideals; brings nothing

Question 24

excuse of brothers

Answer 24

“sudden speed” - he left
“Poor Girl!”
“‘scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands”
- “Hope” personified to show the hold it has on Isabel
- sibilance emphasises pace

Question 25

she’s sad hes dead

Answer 25

“Selfishness, Love’s cousin, held not long Its fiery vigil” - personification of emotion reflects the Romantic ideal of emotion over logic.
“fiery vigil” - noun phrase conveys devotion and foreshadows Isabel’s later actions.
- her feelings are overtaken by her passion and her grief

Question 26

Isabella depressed/ winter imagery/ losing her looks/ their guilt?

Answer 26

“breath of Winter”
“gradual decay from beauty fell”
- winter: death
- present continuous tense - ongoing; her demise echoes changes in nature
“Their crimes / Came on them, like a smoke from Hinnom’s vale” - simile conveys how the brothers are cursed by their actions; guilt?/ classical illusion

Question 27

dangerous passion highlights isabella’s greif

Answer 27

“It came like a fierce potion, drunk by chance”
“With cruel pierce, …
Sense of the gnawing fire at heart and brain.”
- violent imagery
- the image of Lorenzo offers Isabel some brief respite
- Lorenzo’s appearance, voice etc. mirror Isabel’s demise; nature has lost its beaut

Question 28

vision of lorenzo

Answer 28

“It was a vision.—In the drowsy gloom”
- gloom is personified as drowsy, or lethargic
- Lorenzo’s emotion mirrors Isabel’s reaction to his loss
- Lorenzo’s appearance, voice etc. mirror Isabel’s demise; nature has lost its beauty
- declarative and end-stopping marks Isabel’s anagnorisis, the point at which she realises the truth.

Question 29

lorenzo’s ghost talking

Answer 29

“Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spake”
“piteous tongue”
“moan’d a ghostly under-song”
- Isabel is still drawn to the vision of Lorenzo, highlighting the depth of her feelings
- Gothic elements highlight the darkness and tragedy here
- his torment

Question 30

lorenzo describes feeling of death

Answer 30

“a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet”
“prickly nuts”
- Lorenzo feels the weight / discomfort of his death - droop, weighs, flint, prickly; oppression continues
- Isabel is still drawn to the vision of Lorenzo, highlighting the depth of her feelings
““I am a shadow now, alas! alas!”
“Alone: I chant alone”
- exclamations; pitiful; can’t ascend to heaven; unnatural death
“thou art distant in Humanity”
- conveys the indignity of Lorenzo’s death as he didn’t received his last rites, which were seen as crucial in Catholic Italy.

Question 31

can’t remember life on earth; but destined for heaven

Answer 31

“That paleness warms my grave, as though I had / A seraph chosen from the bright abyss” - Petrarchan conceit conveys Lorenzo’s love as a “seraph”, the highest order of angel. The oxymoron “bright abyss” might imply Lorenzo is destined for heaven.
- Consonance in the phrase “slow turmoil” drags out Isabel’s suffering.

Question 32

isabella wants to find his body

Answer 32

• Personification of “Fate” creates a further allusion to the “star cross’d lovers” in Romeo and Juliet; it was Keats’ favourite play.
• “a brother’s bloody knife!” - alliterative plosives convey the cruelty of their actions.
• “How she might find the clay” - anaphoric allusion to “cruel clay”, i.e. the unmasking of the murder.
• “forest-hearse” - metaphor for how the forest is Lorenzo’s resting place, where he can journey to the afterlife
• “Spirit” “thou hast school’d my infancy:” - lost innocence; Capitalisation creates a tragic separation between Isabel and Lorenzo

Question 33

she finds his body

Answer 33

• Personification of “hungry Death” conveys that Lorenzo has been taken by unnatural forces; predatory
• “like to a native lily of the dell” - simile conveys death and devotion through lily symbolism

Question 34

pastoral gothic imagery when she is finding him

Answer 34

“creep along the river side,”
“green church-yard”
- Gothic elements / image of decay bring a dark air to Romanticism

Question 35

she cut his head off

Answer 35

“With duller steel than the Perséan sword
They cut away no formless monster’s head”
“Love never die”
“Pale Isabella kiss’d it, and low moan’d.
‘Twas love; cold,—dead indeed, but not dethroned.”
“Her silk had play’d in purple phantasies”
- implies Love rules all and is eternal
- although he’s dead, Lorenzo’s body brings life to Isabella; pale implies she’s close to death
- alludes to Perseus slaying Medusa; this act is less heroic

Question 36

Isabella has his head and is consumed by mourning; looking after head

Answer 36

“With tears, as chilly as a dripping well,
She drench’d away:—and still she comb’d, and kept
Sighing all day—and still she kiss’d, and wept.”
- relationship remains clandestine; tension is increased
- wild suggests Lorenzo is part of nature
- she shows a religious devotion to his skull: calm’d, comb’d, kiss’d shows her tending to it
- Simile conveys that the joy has gone from Isabel’s life as she is consumed by mourning.

Question 37

repetition of and she forgot

Answer 37

“And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun”
“Hung over her sweet Basil”
- nature now seems lost to her; she has lost track of time
- anaphora emphasises her obsession
- Repetition of “And she forgot” enhances the idea of obsession with the pot of basil.
- - basil symbolises love, good wishes and holiness; in Italy, a man who accepted basil from a woman was destined to marry her.

Question 38

she fed it with tears and it grew

Answer 38

“And so she ever fed it with thin tears,
Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew”
- thin suggests she is weaker as plant grows stronger
- ironic as the basil blooms but Lorenzo and Isabel’s love cannot.

Question 39

personification of melancholy

Answer 39

“O Melancholy, linger here awhile!”
- it seems she wants to wallow in the negative emotion
- personification of Melancholy emphasises the hold it has
- Exclamations create a wailing tone

Question 40

brothers wanna steal pot; steal it find his head

Answer 40

“The thing was vile with green and livid spot, / And yet they knew it was Lorenzo’s face:”
- gruesome image contrasts with Isabel’s feelings
- repetition; brothers robbed her of love twice

Question 41

Isabella upset about them stealing her basil pot; dying

Answer 41

"”O cruelty,
To steal my Basil-pot away from me!””
“For simple Isabel is soon to be / Among the dead”
- foreshadowing creates tragedy through waste of life.

Question 42

metaphor emphasising her care for the head

Answer 42

“And, patient, as a hen-bird // Beside her basil, weeping through her hair” - simile creates pathos as Isabel tends to the basil like she would a husband or child.
- The use of a domestic/maternal bird conveys contemporary ideals as the men are presented as more powerful creatures.

Question 43

downfall of villains

Answer 43

• “With blood upon their heads, to banishment.”
• cowards; guilt?

Question 44

techniques

Answer 44

• ref to shakespeare
• biblical references
• flower imagery
• natural world contrast to exploitation
• classical references