Isabella or the Pot of Basil Flashcards
Keats appropriatey chose to write in ottawa rima, in these 8 line stanza’s of iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abababcc, Keats chooses to repeatedly leave stanza’s open, with what effect?
this promises and withholds conclusions
what is the rhyme scheme?
abababcc
the rhyme in this poem has in the past been dismissed as clumsy and pretentious; stanza 24 provides an example with the laboured rhyme of ‘Apennine’ and ‘eglatine’; however in rejecting the smooth polish and elegance of the 18th century couplet in favour of rougher, more primitive rhymes, What has Keats done?
he has been more innovative, matching the primitive medieval world with appropriate rhetoric
The rhyme in this poem has in the pastdismissed as clumsy and pretentious; stanza ___provides an example with the laboured rhyme of ‘Apennine’ and ‘eglatine’; however in rejecting the smooth polish and elegance of the 18th century couplet in favour of rougher, more primitive rhymes. In doing this Keats has been more innovative, matching the primitive medieval world with appropriate rhetoric
24
The rhyme in this poem has in the pastdismissed as clumsy and pretentious; stanza 25 provides an example with the laboured rhyme of “———–” and ________” ; however in rejecting the smooth polish and elegance of the 18th century couplet in favour of rougher, more primitive rhymes. In doing this Keats has been more innovative, matching the primitive medieval world with appropriate rhetoric
Apennine
eglantine
How is there an apparent contradiction in Keats’ tone?
he graphically renders all the gruesome details of death (“wormy circumstance”) while also expressing a longing for the greatness of old romance
Why might Keats place such emphasis on the greed and pride of Isabella’s brothers? (“Wy were they proud”)
as this may have made it more relevant to the 19th century readers by cruising a capitalistic society.
What is the central ad typical way of reading Keats’ poetry?
to look at the opposition between the worlds of romantic enchantment and cold reality
Young love, sexual passion, sensual richness and idealism are set against what?
heartless capitalism and rational empiricism
Who destroy the idyllic world of the young lovers?
her brothers
How might we see the visit of Lorenzo’s ghost, Isabella’s exhumation of her lovers today and strange cultivation of his head?
as her lamentin for the loss of love and pleasure and beauty which results from the pressures of social and economic demands, the expression of a poignant longing to escape reality
The idealistic world of the young lovers can be considered as just as limited as the brother’s cold, rational world as Keats questions the durability of the idyllic state in the real world. Why is this tragic?
as experience and reality restricts their love to a liminal boundary between real world and the dream world.
Why can the idealisitic world of the young lovers be considered as just as limited as the brother’s cold, rational world?
as while absorbed by their passion, Lorenzo and Isabella exclude the larger world of human society; in this sense their naivete and complete unawareness of the outside world makes them vulnerable and unable to cope with or defend themselves against the manipulative tactics of the more worldly brothers.
the idealisitic world of the young lovers be considered as just as limited as the brother’s cold, rational worldas while absorbed by their passion, Lorenzo and Isabella exclude the larger world of human society; in this sense their naivete and complete unawareness of the outside world makes them vulnerable and unable to cope with or defend themselves against the manipulative tactics of the more worldly brothers. Because of this, what might we now see the poem as?
as a questioning of the feasibility of their idealsim due to the inevitability of their tragic fall.
What might a Marxist-Feminist reading of “Isabella” instead suggest?
that the identities of both Lorenzo and Isabella are actually defined through love
