Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil (1818 poem)
E713727
Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil is a narrative poem by John Keats that retells a tragic love story from Boccaccio’s Decameron, focusing on a young woman who mourns her murdered lover in macabre devotion.
Observed surface forms (1)
| Surface form | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil | 0 |
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | narrative poem ⓘ |
| alternateTitle | Isabella NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| author | John Keats NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOn | Decameron NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOnStory | "Lisabetta da Messina" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOnWorkBy | Giovanni Boccaccio NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralMotif | basil pot containing Lorenzo's head ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| exploresMotif |
commerce versus affection
ⓘ
love and death intermingled ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter | Isabella's brothers ⓘ |
| firstPublicationFormat | periodical ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | The Indicator NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
romantic narrative poem
ⓘ
tragic love story ⓘ |
| hasArtisticAdaptationBy | John Everett Millais NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasIllustratedAdaptationBy | William Holman Hunt NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasTitleCharacter | Isabella NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influenced | Pre-Raphaelite visual art NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Romanticism ⓘ |
| literaryTechnique |
narrative digression
ⓘ
sensuous imagery ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Isabella
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Lorenzo NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| meter | iambic pentameter ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narrator ⓘ |
| originalPublicationYear | 1818 ⓘ |
| partOf | John Keats's poetic oeuvre ⓘ |
| period | Romantic period ⓘ |
| plotSummary |
Isabella exhumes Lorenzo's body, cuts off his head, and hides it in a pot of basil
ⓘ
Isabella loves Lorenzo, a clerk employed by her merchant brothers, who murder him to prevent their unequal marriage ⓘ Isabella tends the basil pot obsessively and wastes away in grief ⓘ Lorenzo appears to Isabella in a dream and reveals the place of his burial NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setting | Italy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| settingPeriod | late Middle Ages ⓘ |
| theme |
class difference
ⓘ
death ⓘ family conflict ⓘ mourning ⓘ obsessive devotion ⓘ tragic love ⓘ |
| tone |
macabre
ⓘ
melancholic ⓘ |
| verseForm | ottava rima ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.