{ "id": "john-keats/isabella-or-the-pot-of-basil", "title": "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": "A Story from Boccaccio", "poet": "John Keats", "poet_slug": "john-keats", "language": "en", "book": "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems", "book_slug": "lamia-isabella-the-eve-of-st-agnes-and-other-poems", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": null, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1820, "venue": "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://archive.org/details/keatslamia" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/john-keats_poetry", "file": "poetry.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://archive.org/details/completepoetical01keat", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005261190" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-12" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 504, "n_stanzas": 63, "n_parts": 63, "longest_line_chars": 54, "max_indent": 1 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [ { "ordinal": "I", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 0, 1 ] }, { "ordinal": "II", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 1, 2 ] }, { "ordinal": "III", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 2, 3 ] }, { "ordinal": "IV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 3, 4 ] }, { "ordinal": "V", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 4, 5 ] }, { "ordinal": "VI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 5, 6 ] }, { "ordinal": "VII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 6, 7 ] }, { "ordinal": "VIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 7, 8 ] }, { "ordinal": "IX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 8, 9 ] }, { "ordinal": "X", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 9, 10 ] }, { "ordinal": "XI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 10, 11 ] }, { "ordinal": "XII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 11, 12 ] }, { "ordinal": 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"stanza_range": [ 57, 58 ] }, { "ordinal": "LIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 58, 59 ] }, { "ordinal": "LX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 59, 60 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 60, 61 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 61, 62 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 62, 63 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lorenzo, a young palmer in love’s eye!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They could not in the self-same mansion dwell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without some stir of heart, some malady;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They could not sit at meals but feel how well", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It soothed each to be the other by;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But to each other dream, and nightly weep.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With every morn their love grew tenderer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With every eve deeper and tenderer still;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He might not in house, field, or garden stir,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But her full shape would all his seeing fill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And his continual voice was pleasanter", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To her, than noise of trees or hidden rill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her lute-string gave an echo of his name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She spoilt her half-done broidery with the same.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He knew whose gentle hand was at the latch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the door had given her to his eyes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And from her chamber-window he would catch", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her beauty farther than the falcon spies;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And constant as her vespers would he watch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because her face was turn’d to the same skies;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And with sick longing all the night outwear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear her morning-step upon the stair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A whole long month of May in this sad plight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made their cheeks paler by the break of June:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“To-morrow will I bow to my delight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To-morrow will I ask my lady’s boon.”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“O may I never see another night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lorenzo, if thy lips breathe not love’s tune.”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So spake they to their pillows; but, alas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Honeyless days and days did he let pass;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Until sweet Isabella’s untouch’d cheek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fell sick within the rose’s just domain,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Fell thin as a young mother’s, who doth seek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By every lull to cool her infant’s pain:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“How ill she is!” said he, “I may not speak,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet I will, and tell my love all plain:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If looks speak love-laws, I will drink her tears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And at the least ’twill startle off her cares.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So said he one fair morning, and all day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His heart beat awfully against his side;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And to his heart he inwardly did pray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For power to speak; but still the ruddy tide", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Stifled his voice, and pulsed resolve away⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fever’d his high conceit of such a bride,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet brought him to the meekness of a child:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alas! when passion is both meek and wild!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So once more he had waked and anguished", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dreary night of love and misery,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If Isabel’s quick eye had not been wed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To every symbol on his forehead high:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She saw it waxing very pale and dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And straight all flush’d; so, lisped tenderly,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Lorenzo!”⁠—here she ceased her timid quest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in her tone and look he read the rest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“O Isabella, I can half perceive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I may speak my grief into thine ear;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If thou didst ever anything believe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Believe how I love thee, believe how near", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My soul is to its doom: I would not grieve", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy hand by unwelcome pressing, would not fear", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thine eyes by gazing; but I cannot live", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Another night, and not my passion shrive.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Love! thou art leading me from wintry cold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lady! thou leadest me to summer clime,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And I must taste the blossoms that unfold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In its ripe warmth this gracious morning time.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So said, his erewhile timid lips grew bold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And poesied with hers in dewy rhyme:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Great bliss was with them, and great happiness", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew, like a lusty flower in June’s caress.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Parting they seem’d to tread upon the air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Twin roses by the zephyr blown apart", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Only to meet again more close, and share", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The inward fragrance of each other’s heart.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She, to her chamber gone, a ditty fair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sang, of delicious love and honey’d dart;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He with light steps went up a western hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bade the sun farewell, and joy’d his fill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All close they met again, before the dusk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All close they met, all eves, before the dusk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Close in a bower of hyacinth and musk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unknown of any, free from whispering tale.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah! better had it been forever so,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than idle ears should pleasure in their woe.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Were they unhappy then?⁠—It cannot be⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too many tears for lovers have been shed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Too many sighs give we to them in fee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too much of pity after they are dead,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Too many doleful stories do we see,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose matter in bright gold were best be read;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Except in such a page where Theseus’ spouse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Over the pathless waves towards him bows.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But, for the general award of love,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The little sweet doth kill much bitterness;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though Dido silent is in under-grove,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Isabella’s was a great distress,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though young Lorenzo in warm Indian clove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was not embalm’d, this truth is not the less⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even bees, the little almsmen of spring-bowers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With her two brothers this fair lady dwelt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enriched from ancestral merchandise,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And for them many a weary hand did swelt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In torched mines and noisy factories,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And many once proud-quiver’d loins did melt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In blood from stinging whip;⁠—with hollow eyes", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Many all day in dazzling river stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To take the rich-ored driftings of the flood.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For them the Ceylon diver held his breath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And went all naked to the hungry shark;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For them his ears gush’d blood; for them in death", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The seal on the cold ice with piteous bark", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lay full of darts; for them alone did seethe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand men in troubles wide and dark:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Half-ignorant, they turn’d an easy wheel,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That set sharp racks at work, to pinch and peel.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Why were they proud? Because their marble founts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gush’d with more pride than do a wretch’s tears?⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Why were they proud? Because fair orange-mounts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were of more soft ascent than lazar stairs?⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Why were they proud? Because red-lined accounts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were richer than the songs of Grecian years?⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Why were they proud? again we ask aloud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why in the name of Glory were they proud?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet were these Florentines as self-retired", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In hungry pride and gainful cowardice,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As two close Hebrews in that land inspired,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Paled in and vineyarded from beggar-spies;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The hawks of ship-mast forests⁠—the untired", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pannier’d mules for ducats and old lies⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Quick cat’s-paws on the generous stray-away,⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Great wits in Spanish, Tuscan, and Malay.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How was it these same ledger-men could spy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fair Isabella in her downy nest?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How could they find out in Lorenzo’s eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A straying from his toil? Hot Egypt’s pest", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Into their vision covetous and sly!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How could these money-bags see east and west?⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet so they did⁠—and every dealer fair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must see behind, as doth the hunted hare.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O eloquent and famed Boccaccio!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of thee we now should ask forgiving boon,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And of thy spicy myrtles as they blow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And of thy roses amorous of the moon,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And of thy lilies, that do paler grow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now they can no more hear thy ghittern’s tune,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For venturing syllables that ill beseem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Grant thou a pardon here, and then the tale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall move on soberly, as it is meet;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There is no other crime, no mad assail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make old prose in modern rhyme more sweet:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But it is done⁠—succeed the verse or fail⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To honour thee, and thy gone spirit greet;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To stead thee as a verse in English tongue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An echo of thee in the north-wind sung.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "These brethren having found by many signs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What love Lorenzo for their sister had,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And how she loved him too, each unconfines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His bitter thoughts to other, well-nigh mad", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That he, the servant of their trade designs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should in their sister’s love be blithe and glad,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When ’twas their plan to coax her by degrees", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To some high noble and his olive-trees.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And many a jealous conference had they,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many times they bit their lips alone,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Before they fix’d upon a surest way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make the youngster for his crime atone;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And at the last, these men of cruel clay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cut Mercy with a sharp knife to the bone;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For they resolved in some forest dim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To kill Lorenzo, and there bury him.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So on a pleasant morning, as he leant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into the sunrise, o’er the balustrade", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of the garden-terrace, towards him they bent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their footing through the dews; and to him said,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“You seem there in the quiet of content,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lorenzo, and we are most loth to invade", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Calm speculation; but if you are wise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bestride your steed while cold is in the skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“To-day we purpose, aye, this hour we mount", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To spur three leagues towards the Apennine;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Come down, we pray thee, ere the hot sun count", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His dewy rosary on the eglantine.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lorenzo, courteously as he was wont,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bow’d a fair greeting to these serpents’ whine;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And went in haste, to get in readiness,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With belt, and spur, and bracing huntsman’s dress.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And as he to the court-yard pass’d along,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each third step did he pause, and listen’d oft", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If he could hear his lady’s matin-song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or the light whisper of her footstep soft;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And as he thus over his passion hung,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He heard a laugh full musical aloft;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When, looking up, he saw her features bright", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smile through an in-door lattice, all delight.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Love, Isabel!” said he, “I was in pain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lest I should miss to bid thee a good morrow:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah! what if I should lose thee, when so fain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am to stifle all the heavy sorrow", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of a poor three hours’ absence? but we’ll gain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out of the amorous dark what day doth borrow.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Good bye! I’ll soon be back.”⁠—“Good bye!” said she:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And as he went she chanted merrily.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So the two brothers and their murder’d man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rode past fair Florence, to where Arno’s stream", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gurgles through straighten’d banks, and still doth fan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Itself with dancing bulrush, and the bream", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Keeps head against the freshets. Sick and wan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The brothers’ faces in the ford did seem,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lorenzo’s flush with love.⁠—They pass’d the water", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into a forest quiet for the slaughter.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was Lorenzo slain and buried in,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There in that forest did his great love cease;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah! when a soul doth thus its freedom win,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It aches in loneliness⁠—is ill at peace", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As the break-covert bloodhounds of such sin:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They dipp’d their swords in the water, and did tease", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their horses homeward, with convulsed spur,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each richer by his being a murderer.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They told their sister how, with sudden speed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lorenzo had ta’en ship for foreign lands,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because of some great urgency and need", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In their affairs, requiring trusty hands.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Poor Girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To-day thou wilt not see him, nor to-morrow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the next day will be a day of sorrow.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She weeps alone for pleasures not to be;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sorely she wept until the night came on,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then, instead of love, O misery!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She brooded o’er the luxury alone:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His image in the dusk she seem’d to see,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And to the silence made a gentle moan,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Spreading her perfect arms upon the air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And on her couch low murmuring, “Where? O where?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Selfishness, Love’s cousin, held not long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its fiery vigil in her single breast;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She fretted for the golden hour, and hung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the time with feverish unrest⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not long⁠—for soon into her heart a throng", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of higher occupants, a richer zest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Came tragic; passion not to be subdued,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sorrow for her love in travels rude.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In the mid days of autumn, on their eves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The breath of Winter comes from far away,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the sick west continually bereaves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of some gold tinge, and plays a roundelay", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of death among the bushes and the leaves,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make all bare before he dares to stray", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From his north cavern. So sweet Isabel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By gradual decay from beauty fell,", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Because Lorenzo came not. Oftentimes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She ask’d her brothers, with an eye all pale,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Striving to be itself, what dungeon climes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could keep him off so long? They spake a tale", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Time after time, to quiet her. Their crimes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came on them, like a smoke from Hinnom’s vale;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And every night in dreams they groan’d aloud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see their sister in her snowy shroud.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And she had died in drowsy ignorance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But for a thing more deadly dark than all;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It came like a fierce potion, drunk by chance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which saves a sick man from the feather’d pall", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For some few gasping moments; like a lance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waking an Indian from his cloudy hall", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With cruel pierce, and bringing him again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sense of the gnawing fire at heart and brain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It was a vision.⁠—In the drowsy gloom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dull of midnight, at her couch’s foot", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had marr’d his glossy hair which once could shoot", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had made a miry channel for his tears.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spake;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there was striving, in its piteous tongue,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To speak as when on earth it was awake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Isabella on its music hung:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As in a palsied Druid’s harp unstrung;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And through it moan’d a ghostly undersong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briars among.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From the poor girl by magic of their light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The while it did unthread the horrid woof", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of the late darken’d time,⁠—the murderous spite", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of pride and avarice,⁠—the dark pine roof", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In the forest,⁠—and the sodden turfed dell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, without any word, from stabs he fell.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Saying moreover, “Isabel, my sweet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Red whortleberries droop above my head,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Around me beeches and high chestnuts shed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheepfold bleat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Comes from beyond the river to my bed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Go, shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And it shall comfort me within the tomb.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“I am a shadow now, alas! alas!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Alone: I chant alone the holy mass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While little sounds of life are round me knelling,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thou art distant in Humanity.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“I know what was, I feel full well what is,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I should rage, if spirits could go mad;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though I forget the taste of earthly bliss,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That paleness warms my grave, as though I had", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A Seraph chosen from the bright abyss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be my spouse: thy paleness makes me glad;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thy beauty grows upon me, and I feel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A greater love through all my essence steal.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Spirit mourn’d “Adieu!”⁠—dissolved, and left", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The atom darkness in a slow turmoil;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As when of healthful midnight sleep bereft,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thinking on rugged hours and fruitless toil,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "We put our eyes into a pillowy cleft,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And see the spangly gloom froth up and boil:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It made sad Isabella’s eyelids ache,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the dawn she started up awake.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Ha! ha!” said she, “I knew not this hard life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I thought the worst was simple misery;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I thought some Fate with pleasure or with strife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Portion’d us⁠—happy days, or else to die;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But there is crime⁠—a brother’s bloody knife!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet Spirit, thou hast school’d my infancy:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ll visit thee for this, and kiss thine eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And greet thee morn and even in the skies.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When the full morning came, she had devised", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How she might secret to the forest hie;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How she might find the clay, so dearly prized,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sing to it one latest lullaby;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How her short absence might be unsurmised,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While she the inmost of the dream would try.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Resolved, she took with her an aged nurse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And went into that dismal forest-hearse.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "See, as they creep along the river side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How she doth whisper to that aged Dame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, after looking round the champaign wide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shows her a knife.⁠—“What feverous hectic flame", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Burns in thee, child?⁠—what good can thee betide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That thou shouldst smile again?”⁠—The evening came,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And they had found Lorenzo’s earthy bed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flint was there, the berries at his head.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Who hath not loiter’d in a green churchyard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And let his spirit, like a demon-mole,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Work through the clayey soil and gravel hard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see skull, coffin’d bones, and funeral stole;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pitying each form that hungry Death hath marr’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And filling it once more with human soul?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah! this is holiday to what was felt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Isabella by Lorenzo knelt.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She gazed into the fresh-thrown mould, as though", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One glance did fully all its secrets tell;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Clearly she saw, as other eyes would know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pale limbs at bottom of a crystal well;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon the murderous spot she seem’d to grow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like to a native lily of the dell:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then with her knife, all sudden, she began", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To dig more fervently than misers can.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Soon she turn’d up a soiled glove, whereon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her silk had play’d in purple phantasies:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She kiss’d it with a lip more chill than stone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And put it in her bosom, where it dries", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And freezes utterly unto the bone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those dainties made to still an infant’s cries;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then ’gan she work again; nor stay’d her care,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But to throw back at times her veiling hair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That old nurse stood beside her wondering,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until her heart felt pity to the core", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At sight of such a dismal labouring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so she kneeled, with her locks all hoar,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And put her lean hands to the horrid thing:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Three hours they labour’d at this travail sore:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At last they felt the kernel of the grave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Isabella did not stamp and rave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ah! wherefore all this wormy circumstance?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why linger at the yawning tomb so long?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O for the gentleness of old Romance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The simple plaining of a minstrel’s song!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Fair reader, at the old tale take a glance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here, in truth, it doth not well belong", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To speak:⁠—O turn thee to the very tale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And taste the music of that vision pale.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With duller steel than the Perséan sword", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They cut away no formless monster’s head,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But one, whose gentleness did well accord", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With death, as life. The ancient harps have said,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Love never dies, but lives, immortal Lord:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If Love impersonate was ever dead,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pale Isabella kiss’d it, and low moan’d.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas love; cold,⁠—dead indeed, but not dethron’d.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In anxious secrecy they took it home,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then the prize was all for Isabel:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She calm’d its wild hair with a golden comb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all around each eye’s sepulchral cell", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pointed each fringed lash; the smeared loam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With tears, as chilly as a dripping well,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She drench’d away: and still she comb’d, and kept", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sighing all day⁠—and still she kiss’d and wept.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then in a silken scarf,⁠—sweet with the dews", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of precious flowers pluck’d in Araby,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And divine liquids come with odorous ooze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through the cold serpent-pipe refreshfully,⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She wrapp’d it up; and for its tomb did choose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A garden-pot, wherein she laid it by,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And cover’d it with mould, and o’er it set", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet Basil, which her tears kept ever wet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And she forgot the blue above the trees,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And she forgot the dells where waters run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had no knowledge when the day was done,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the new morn she saw not: but in peace", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hung over her sweet Basil evermore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And moisten’d it with tears unto the core.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And so she ever fed it with thin tears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that it smelt more balmy than its peers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Basil-tufts in Florence; for it drew", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nurture besides, and life, from human fears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From the fast mouldering head there shut from view:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that the jewel, safely casketed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came forth, and in perfumed leafits spread.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O Melancholy, linger here awhile!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O Music, Music, breathe despondingly!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O Echo, Echo, from some sombre isle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unknown, Lethean, sigh to us⁠—O sigh!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Spirits in grief, lift up your heads, and smile;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lift up your heads, sweet Spirits, heavily,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And make a pale light in your cypress glooms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tinting with silver wan your marble tombs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Moan hither, all ye syllables of woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From the deep throat of sad Melpomene!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through bronzed lyre in tragic order go,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And touch the strings into a mystery;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sound mournfully upon the winds and low;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For simple Isabel is soon to be", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Among the dead: She withers, like a palm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cut by an Indian for its juicy balm.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O leave the palm to wither by itself;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let not quick Winter chill its dying hour!⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It may not be⁠—those Baälites of pelf,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her brethren, noted the continual shower", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From her dead eyes: and many a curious elf,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among her kindred, wonder’d that such dower", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of youth and beauty should be thrown aside", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By one mark’d out to be a Noble’s bride.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And, furthermore, her brethren wonder’d much", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why she sat drooping by the Basil green,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And why it flourish’d, as by magic touch;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Greatly they wonder’d what the thing might mean:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They could not surely give belief, that such", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A very nothing would have power to wean", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her from her own fair youth, and pleasures gay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And even remembrance of her love’s delay.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Therefore they watch’d a time when they might sift", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This hidden whim; and long they watch’d in vain;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For seldom did she go to chapel-shrift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seldom felt she any hunger-pain:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And when she left, she hurried back, as swift", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As bird on wing to breast its eggs again:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, patient as a hen-bird, sat her there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beside her Basil, weeping through her hair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet they contrived to steal the Basil-pot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And to examine it in secret place:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The thing was vile with green and livid spot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet they knew it was Lorenzo’s face:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The guerdon of their murder they had got,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so left Florence in a moment’s space,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Never to turn again.⁠—Away they went,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With blood upon their heads, to banishment.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O Melancholy, turn thine eyes away!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O Music, Music, breathe despondingly!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O Echo, Echo, on some other day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From isles Lethean, sigh to us⁠—O sigh!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Spirits of grief, sing not your “Well-a-way!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Isabel, sweet Isabel, will die;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Will die a death too lone and incomplete,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now they have ta’en away her Basil sweet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Piteous she look’d on dead and senseless things,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Asking for her lost Basil amorously:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And with melodious chuckle in the strings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of her lorn voice, she oftentimes would cry", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "After the Pilgrim in his wanderings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To ask him where her Basil was; and why", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twas hid from her: “For cruel ’tis,” said she,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“To steal my Basil-pot away from me.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And so she pined, and so she died forlorn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Imploring for her Basil to the last.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No heart was there in Florence but did mourn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In pity of her love, so overcast.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And a sad ditty of this story born", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From mouth to mouth through all the country pass’d:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Still is the burthen sung⁠—“O cruelty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To steal my Basil-pot away from me!”", "indent": 0 } ] ] }