Isabella Or The Pot Of Basil Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCBADD AEFEFEFGG AHIHIJIEE KLMLMLMNN KOPOPOPQQ KRSRSRSTT KUKVKVKWW KKEKEKEKK QXGXGXGQQ QEYEYEYFF QZA2ZA2ZA2QQ QQVQVQVQQ QKQKQKQQQ KB2QB2QB2QB2B2 KC2D2C2D2E2D2F2F2 KQQQQQQB2B2 KB2QB2QB2QRR KKB2KB2KB2EE QQMQMQMGG QA2B2A2B2A2B2G2G2 QQB2QB2QB2QQ QRH2RH2RH2GG QB2B2B2B2I | A |
Fair Isabel poor simple Isabel | B |
Lorenzo a young palmer in Love's eye | A |
They could not in the self same mansion dwell | B |
Without some stir of heart some malady | C |
They could not sit at meals but feel how well | B |
It soothed each to be the other by | A |
They could not sure beneath the same roof sleep | D |
But to each other dream and nightly weep | D |
- | |
II | A |
With every morn their love grew tenderer | E |
With every eve deeper and tenderer still | F |
He might not in house field or garden stir | E |
But her full shape would all his seeing fill | F |
And his continual voice was pleasanter | E |
To her than noise of trees or hidden rill | F |
Her lute string gave an echo of his name | G |
She spoilt her half done broidery with the same | G |
- | |
III | A |
He knew whose gentle hand was at the latch | H |
Before the door had given her to his eyes | I |
And from her chamber window he would catch | H |
Her beauty farther than the falcon spies | I |
And constant as her vespers would he watch | J |
Because her face was turn'd to the same skies | I |
And with sick longing all the night outwear | E |
To hear her morning step upon the stair | E |
- | |
IV | K |
A whole long month of May in this sad plight | L |
Made their cheeks paler by the break of June | M |
To morrow will I bow to my delight | L |
To morrow will I ask my lady's boon | M |
O may I never see another night | L |
Lorenzo if thy lips breathe not love's tune | M |
So spake they to their pillows but alas | N |
Honeyless days and days did he let pass | N |
- | |
V | K |
Until sweet Isabella's untouch'd cheek | O |
Fell sick within the rose's just domain | P |
Fell thin as a young mother's who doth seek | O |
By every lull to cool her infant's pain | P |
How ill she is said he I may not speak | O |
And yet I will and tell my love all plain | P |
If looks speak love laws I will drink her tears | Q |
And at the least 'twill startle off her cares | Q |
- | |
VI | K |
So said he one fair morning and all day | R |
His heart beat awfully against his side | S |
And to his heart he inwardly did pray | R |
For power to speak but still the ruddy tide | S |
Stifled his voice and puls'd resolve away | R |
Fever'd his high conceit of such a bride | S |
Yet brought him to the meekness of a child | T |
Alas when passion is both meek and wild | T |
- | |
VII | K |
So once more he had wak'd and anguished | U |
A dreary night of love and misery | K |
If Isabel's quick eye had not been wed | V |
To every symbol on his forehead high | K |
She saw it waxing very pale and dead | V |
And straight all flush'd so lisped tenderly | K |
Lorenzo here she ceas'd her timid quest | W |
But in her tone and look he read the rest | W |
- | |
VIII | K |
O Isabella I can half perceive | K |
That I may speak my grief into thine ear | E |
If thou didst ever any thing believe | K |
Believe how I love thee believe how near | E |
My soul is to its doom I would not grieve | K |
Thy hand by unwelcome pressing would not fear | E |
Thine eyes by gazing but I cannot live | K |
Another night and not my passion shrive | K |
- | |
IX | Q |
Love thou art leading me from wintry cold | X |
Lady thou leadest me to summer clime | G |
And I must taste the blossoms that unfold | X |
In its ripe warmth this gracious morning time | G |
So said his erewhile timid lips grew bold | X |
And poesied with hers in dewy rhyme | G |
Great bliss was with them and great happiness | Q |
Grew like a lusty flower in June's caress | Q |
- | |
X | Q |
Parting they seem'd to tread upon the air | E |
Twin roses by the zephyr blown apart | Y |
Only to meet again more close and share | E |
The inward fragrance of each other's heart | Y |
She to her chamber gone a ditty fair | E |
Sang of delicious love and honey'd dart | Y |
He with light steps went up a western hill | F |
And bade the sun farewell and joy'd his fill | F |
- | |
XI | Q |
All close they met again before the dusk | Z |
Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil | A2 |
All close they met all eves before the dusk | Z |
Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil | A2 |
Close in a bower of hyacinth and musk | Z |
Unknown of any free from whispering tale | A2 |
Ah better had it been for ever so | Q |
Than idle ears should pleasure in their woe | Q |
- | |
XII | Q |
Were they unhappy then It cannot be | Q |
Too many tears for lovers have been shed | V |
Too many sighs give we to them in fee | Q |
Too much of pity after they are dead | V |
Too many doleful stories do we see | Q |
Whose matter in bright gold were best be read | V |
Except in such a page where Theseus' spouse | Q |
Over the pathless waves towards him bows | Q |
- | |
XIII | Q |
But for the general award of love | K |
The little sweet doth kill much bitterness | Q |
Though Dido silent is in under grove | K |
And Isabella's was a great distress | Q |
Though young Lorenzo in warm Indian clove | K |
Was not embalm'd this truth is not the less | Q |
Even bees the little almsmen of spring bowers | Q |
Know there is richest juice in poison flowers | Q |
- | |
XIV | K |
With her two brothers this fair lady dwelt | B2 |
Enriched from ancestral merchandize | Q |
And for them many a weary hand did swelt | B2 |
In torched mines and noisy factories | Q |
And many once proud quiver'd loins did melt | B2 |
In blood from stinging whip with hollow eyes | Q |
Many all day in dazzling river stood | B2 |
To take the rich ored driftings of the flood | B2 |
- | |
XV | K |
For them the Ceylon diver held his breath | C2 |
And went all naked to the hungry shark | D2 |
For them his ears gush'd blood for them in death | C2 |
The seal on the cold ice with piteous bark | D2 |
Lay full of darts for them alone did seethe | E2 |
A thousand men in troubles wide and dark | D2 |
Half ignorant they turn'd an easy wheel | F2 |
That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel | F2 |
- | |
XVI | K |
Why were they proud Because their marble founts | Q |
Gush'd with more pride than do a wretch's tears | Q |
Why were they proud Because fair orange mounts | Q |
Were of more soft ascent than lazar stairs | Q |
Why were they proud Because red lin'd accounts | Q |
Were richer than the songs of Grecian years | Q |
Why were they proud again we ask aloud | B2 |
Why in the name of Glory were they proud | B2 |
- | |
XVII | K |
Yet were these Florentines as self retired | B2 |
In hungry pride and gainful cowardice | Q |
As two close Hebrews in that land inspired | B2 |
Paled in and vineyarded from beggar spies | Q |
The hawks of ship mast forests the untired | B2 |
And pannier'd mules for ducats and old lies | Q |
Quick cat's paws on the generous stray away | R |
Great wits in Spanish Tuscan and Malay | R |
- | |
XVIII | K |
How was it these same ledger men could spy | K |
Fair Isabella in her downy nest | B2 |
How could they find out in Lorenzo's eye | K |
A straying from his toil Hot Egypt's pest | B2 |
Into their vision covetous and sly | K |
How could these money bags see east and west | B2 |
Yet so they did and every dealer fair | E |
Must see behind as doth the hunted hare | E |
- | |
XIX | Q |
O eloquent and famed Boccaccio | Q |
Of thee we now should ask forgiving boon | M |
And of thy spicy myrtles as they blow | Q |
And of thy roses amorous of the moon | M |
And of thy lilies that do paler grow | Q |
Now they can no more hear thy ghittern's tune | M |
For venturing syllables that ill beseem | G |
The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme | G |
- | |
XX | Q |
Grant thou a pardon here and then the tale | A2 |
Shall move on soberly as it is meet | B2 |
There is no other crime no mad assail | A2 |
To make old prose in modern rhyme more sweet | B2 |
But it is done succeed the verse or fail | A2 |
To honour thee and thy gone spirit greet | B2 |
To stead thee as a verse in English tongue | G2 |
An echo of thee in the north wind sung | G2 |
- | |
XXI | Q |
These brethren having found by many signs | Q |
What love Lorenzo for their sister had | B2 |
And how she lov'd him too each unconfines | Q |
His bitter thoughts to other well nigh mad | B2 |
That he the servant of their trade designs | Q |
Should in their sister's love be blithe and glad | B2 |
When 'twas their plan to coax her by degrees | Q |
To some high noble and his olive trees | Q |
- | |
XXII | Q |
And many a jealous conference had they | R |
And many times they bit their lips alone | H2 |
Before they fix'd upon a surest way | R |
To make the youngster for his crime atone | H2 |
And at the last these men of cruel clay | R |
Cut Mercy with a sharp knife to the bone | H2 |
For they resolved in some forest dim | G |
To kill Lorenzo and there bury him | G |
- | |
XXIII | Q |
So on a pleasant morning as he leant | B2 |
Into the sun rise o'er the balustrade | B2 |
Of the garden terrace towards him they bent | B2 |
Their footing through the dews and to him said | B2 |
John Keats
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