The Pot Of Basil; Or, Isabella Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BABCBADD A EFEFEFGG A HIHIJIEE K LMLMLMNN K OPOPOPQQ K RSRSRSTT K UKVKVKWW K KEKEKEKK Q XGXGXGQQ Q EYEYEYFF Q ZA2ZA2ZA2QQ Q QVQVQVQQ Q KQKQKQQQ K B2QB2QB2QB2B2 K C2D2C2D2E2D2F2F2 K QQQQQQB2B2 K B2QB2QB2QRR K KB2KB2KB2EE Q QMQMQMGG Q A2B2A2B2A2B2G2G2 Q QB2QB2QB2QQ Q RH2RH2RH2GG Q B2B2B2B2B2B2QQ K B2I2B2J2B2J2QQ K K2B2K2B2G2B2B2B2 K PQPQPQQQ K L2GL2GM2GEE K N2QN2QN2QEE Q B2QB2QB2QQQ Q QM2QH2QH2EE Q K2B2G2B2K2B2B2B2 Q QRQQQRQQ Q QQQQQQB2B2 K QQQQQQO2P K GB2GB2GB2QQ K P2G2P2G2P2P2P2P2 K B2KB2KB2KQQ K B2B2B2B2B2B2GG Q QP2QP2QP2QQ Q QB2QB2QB2QQ Q B2QB2QB2QP2P2 Q KQKB2KQQQ Q B2Q2B2B2B2B2QQ K B2GB2GB2GB2B2 K B2QB2QB2QB2B2 K QQQQQQL2L2 K L2QL2QL2QEE K P2EP2EP2EKK Q QP2QP2QP2QQ Q B2B2B2B2B2B2B2B2 Q GQGQGQB2B2 Q QB2QQQB2B2B2 Q L2QL2QL2QEE K QEQEQEB2B2 E QQQEQQQQ E QL2QQQQGG E EEEEEEB2B2 E R2L2R2L2R2L2P2P2 Q B2L2B2L2B2L2EE Q B2QB2QB2QB2B2 Q P2P2P2EP2EB2B2 Q QP2QEQEQQ Q L2B2L2B2L2B2QQI | A |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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XXIII | Q |
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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 |
You seem there in the quiet of content | B2 |
Lorenzo and we are most loth to invade | B2 |
Calm speculation but if you are wise | Q |
Bestride your steed while cold is in the skies | Q |
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XXIV | K |
- | |
To day we purpose ay this hour we mount | B2 |
To spur three leagues towards the Apennine | I2 |
Come down we pray thee ere the hot sun count | B2 |
His dewy rosary on the eglantine | J2 |
Lorenzo courteously as he was wont | B2 |
Bow'd a fair greeting to these serpents' whine | J2 |
And went in haste to get in readiness | Q |
With belt and spur and bracing huntsman's dress | Q |
- | |
XXV | K |
- | |
And as he to the court yard pass'd along | K2 |
Each third step did he pause and listen'd oft | B2 |
If he could hear his lady's matin song | K2 |
Or the light whisper of her footstep soft | B2 |
And as he thus over his passion hung | G2 |
He heard a laugh full musical aloft | B2 |
When looking up he saw her features bright | B2 |
Smile through an in door lattice all delight | B2 |
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XXVI | K |
- | |
Love Isabel said he I was in pain | P |
Lest I should miss to bid thee a good morrow | Q |
Ah what if I should lose thee when so fain | P |
I am to stifle all the heavy sorrow | Q |
Of a poor three hours' absence but we'll gain | P |
Out of the amorous dark what day doth borrow | Q |
Good bye I'll soon be back Good bye said she | Q |
And as he went she chanted merrily | Q |
- | |
XXVII | K |
- | |
So the two brothers and their murder'd man | L2 |
Rode past fair Florence to where Arno's stream | G |
Gurgles through straiten'd banks and still doth fan | L2 |
Itself with dancing bulrush and the bream | G |
Keeps head against the freshets Sick and wan | M2 |
The brothers' faces in the ford did seem | G |
Lorenzo's flush with love They pass'd the water | E |
Into a forest quiet for the slaughter | E |
- | |
XXVIII | K |
- | |
There was Lorenzo slain and buried in | N2 |
There in that forest did his great love cease | Q |
Ah when a soul doth thus its freedom win | N2 |
It aches in loneliness is ill at peace | Q |
As the break covert blood hounds of such sin | N2 |
They dipp'd their swords in the water and did tease | Q |
Their horses homeward with convulsed spur | E |
Each richer by his being a murderer | E |
- | |
XXIX | Q |
- | |
They told their sister how with sudden speed | B2 |
Lorenzo had ta'en ship for foreign lands | Q |
Because of some great urgency and need | B2 |
In their affairs requiring trusty hands | Q |
Poor Girl put on thy stifling widow's weed | B2 |
And 'scape at once from Hope's accursed bands | Q |
To day thou wilt not see him nor to morrow | Q |
And the next day will be a day of sorrow | Q |
- | |
XXX | Q |
- | |
She weeps alone for pleasures not to be | Q |
Sorely she wept until the night came on | M2 |
And then instead of love O misery | Q |
She brooded o'er the luxury alone | H2 |
His image in the dusk she seem'd to see | Q |
And to the silence made a gentle moan | H2 |
Spreading her perfect arms upon the air | E |
And on her couch low murmuring Where O where | E |
- | |
XXXI | Q |
- | |
But Selfishness Love's cousin held not long | K2 |
Its fiery vigil in her single breast | B2 |
She fretted for the golden hour and hung | G2 |
Upon the time with feverish unrest | B2 |
Not long for soon into her heart a throng | K2 |
Of higher occupants a richer zest | B2 |
Came tragic passion not to be subdued | B2 |
And sorrow for her love in travels rude | B2 |
- | |
XXXII | Q |
- | |
In the mid days of autumn on their eves | Q |
The breath of Winter comes from far away | R |
And the sick west continually bereaves | Q |
Of some gold tinge and plays a roundelay | Q |
Of death among the bushes and the leaves | Q |
To make all bare before he dares to stray | R |
From his north cavern So sweet Isabel | Q |
By gradual decay from beauty fell | Q |
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XXXIII | Q |
- | |
Because Lorenzo came not Oftentimes | Q |
She ask'd her brothers with an eye all pale | Q |
Striving to be itself what dungeon climes | Q |
Could keep him off so long They spake a tale | Q |
Time after time to quiet her Their crimes | Q |
Came on them like a smoke from Hinnom's vale | Q |
And every night in dreams they groan'd aloud | B2 |
To see their sister in her snowy shroud | B2 |
- | |
XXXIV | K |
- | |
And she had died in drowsy ignorance | Q |
But for a thing more deadly dark than all | Q |
It came like a fierce potion drunk by chance | Q |
Which saves a sick man from the feather'd pall | Q |
For some few gasping moments like a lance | Q |
Waking an Indian from his cloudy hall | Q |
With cruel pierce and bringing him again | O2 |
Sense of the gnawing fire at heart and brain | P |
- | |
XXXV | K |
- | |
It was a vision In the drowsy gloom | G |
The dull of midnight at her couch's foot | B2 |
Lorenzo stood and wept the forest tomb | G |
Had marr'd his glossy hair which once could shoot | B2 |
Lustre into the sun and put cold doom | G |
Upon his lips and taken the soft lute | B2 |
From his lorn voice and past his loamed ears | Q |
Had made a miry channel for his tears | Q |
- | |
XXXVI | K |
- | |
Strange sound it was when the pale shadow spake | P2 |
For there was striving in its piteous tongue | G2 |
To speak as when on earth it was awake | P2 |
And Isabella on its music hung | G2 |
Languor there was in it and tremulous shake | P2 |
As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung | P2 |
And through it moan'd a ghostly under song | P2 |
Like hoarse night gusts sepulchral briars among | P2 |
- | |
XXXVII | K |
- | |
Its eyes though wild were still all dewy bright | B2 |
With love and kept all phantom fear aloof | K |
From the poor girl by magic of their light | B2 |
The while it did unthread the horrid woof | K |
Of the late darken'd time the murderous spite | B2 |
Of pride and avarice the dark pine roof | K |
In the forest and the sodden turfed dell | Q |
Where without any word from stabs he fell | Q |
- | |
XXXVIII | K |
- | |
Saying moreover Isabel my sweet | B2 |
Red whortle berries droop above my head | B2 |
And a large flint stone weighs upon my feet | B2 |
Around me beeches and high chestnuts shed | B2 |
Their leaves and prickly nuts a sheep fold bleat | B2 |
Comes from beyond the river to my bed | B2 |
Go shed one tear upon my heather bloom | G |
And it shall comfort me within the tomb | G |
- | |
XXXIX | Q |
- | |
I am a shadow now alas alas | Q |
Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling | P2 |
Alone I chant alone the holy mass | Q |
While little sounds of life are round me knelling | P2 |
And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass | Q |
And many a chapel bell the hour is telling | P2 |
Paining me through those sounds grow strange to me | Q |
And thou art distant in Humanity | Q |
- | |
XL | Q |
- | |
I know what was I feel full well what is | Q |
And I should rage if spirits could go mad | B2 |
Though I forget the taste of earthly bliss | Q |
That paleness warms my grave as though I had | B2 |
A Seraph chosen from the bright abyss | Q |
To be my spouse thy paleness makes me glad | B2 |
Thy beauty grows upon me and I feel | Q |
A greater love through all my essence steal | Q |
- | |
XLI | Q |
- | |
The Spirit mourn'd Adieu dissolv'd and left | B2 |
The atom darkness in a slow turmoil | Q |
As when of healthful midnight sleep bereft | B2 |
Thinking on rugged hours and fruitless toil | Q |
We put our eyes into a pillowy cleft | B2 |
And see the spangly gloom froth up and boil | Q |
It made sad Isabella's eyelids ache | P2 |
And in the dawn she started up awake | P2 |
- | |
XLII | Q |
- | |
Ha ha said she I knew not this hard life | K |
I thought the worst was simple misery | Q |
I thought some Fate with pleasure or with strife | K |
Portion'd us happy days or else to die | B2 |
But there is crime a brother's bloody knife | K |
Sweet Spirit thou hast school'd my infancy | Q |
I'll visit thee for this and kiss thine eyes | Q |
And greet thee morn and even in the skies | Q |
- | |
XLIII | Q |
- | |
When the full morning came she had devised | B2 |
How she might secret to the forest hie | Q2 |
How she might find the clay so dearly prized | B2 |
And sing to it one latest lullaby | B2 |
How her short absence might be unsurmised | B2 |
While she the inmost of the dream would try | B2 |
Resolv'd she took with her an aged nurse | Q |
And went into that dismal forest hearse | Q |
- | |
XLIV | K |
- | |
See as they creep along the river side | B2 |
How she doth whisper to that aged Dame | G |
And after looking round the champaign wide | B2 |
Shows her a knife What feverous hectic flame | G |
Burns in thee child What good can thee betide | B2 |
That thou should'st smile again The evening came | G |
And they had found Lorenzo's earthy bed | B2 |
The flint was there the berries at his head | B2 |
- | |
XLV | K |
- | |
Who hath not loiter'd in a green church yard | B2 |
And let his spirit like a demon mole | Q |
Work through the clayey soil and gravel hard | B2 |
To see skull coffin'd bones and funeral stole | Q |
Pitying each form that hungry Death hath marr'd | B2 |
And filling it once more with human soul | Q |
Ah this is holiday to what was felt | B2 |
When Isabella by Lorenzo knelt | B2 |
- | |
XLVI | K |
- | |
She gaz'd into the fresh thrown mould as though | Q |
One glance did fully all its secrets tell | Q |
Clearly she saw as other eyes would know | Q |
Pale limbs at bottom of a crystal well | Q |
Upon the murderous spot she seem'd to grow | Q |
Like to a native lily of the dell | Q |
Then with her knife all sudden she began | L2 |
To dig more fervently than misers can | L2 |
- | |
XLVII | K |
- | |
Soon she turn'd up a soiled glove whereon | L2 |
Her silk had play'd in purple phantasies | Q |
She kiss'd it with a lip more chill than stone | L2 |
And put it in her bosom where it dries | Q |
And freezes utterly unto the bone | L2 |
Those dainties made to still an infant's cries | Q |
Then 'gan she work again nor stay'd her care | E |
But to throw back at times her veiling hair | E |
- | |
XLVIII | K |
- | |
That old nurse stood beside her wondering | P2 |
Until her heart felt pity to the core | E |
At sight of such a dismal labouring | P2 |
And so she kneeled with her locks all hoar | E |
And put her lean hands to the horrid thing | P2 |
Three hours they labour'd at this travail sore | E |
At last they felt the kernel of the grave | K |
And Isabella did not stamp and rave | K |
- | |
XLIX | Q |
- | |
Ah wherefore all this wormy circumstance | Q |
Why linger at the yawning tomb so long | P2 |
O for the gentleness of old Romance | Q |
The simple plaining of a minstrel's song | P2 |
Fair reader at the old tale take a glance | Q |
For here in truth it doth not well belong | P2 |
To speak O turn thee to the very tale | Q |
And taste the music of that vision pale | Q |
- | |
L | Q |
- | |
With duller steel than the Pers an sword | B2 |
They cut away no formless monster's head | B2 |
But one whose gentleness did well accord | B2 |
With death as life The ancient harps have said | B2 |
Love never dies but lives immortal Lord | B2 |
If Love impersonate was ever dead | B2 |
Pale Isabella kiss'd it and low moan'd | B2 |
'Twas love cold dead indeed but not dethroned | B2 |
- | |
LI | Q |
- | |
In anxious secrecy they took it home | G |
And then the prize was all for Isabel | Q |
She calm'd its wild hair with a golden comb | G |
And all around each eye's sepulchral cell | Q |
Pointed each fringed lash the smeared loam | G |
With tears as chilly as a dripping well | Q |
She drench'd away and still she comb'd and kept | B2 |
Sighing all day and still she kiss'd and wept | B2 |
- | |
LII | Q |
- | |
Then in a silken scarf sweet with the dews | Q |
Of precious flowers pluck'd in Araby | B2 |
And divine liquids come with odorous ooze | Q |
Through the cold serpent pipe refreshfully | Q |
She wrapp'd it up and for its tomb did choose | Q |
A garden pot wherein she laid it by | B2 |
And cover'd it with mould and o'er it set | B2 |
Sweet Basil which her tears kept ever wet | B2 |
- | |
LIII | Q |
- | |
And she forgot the stars the moon and sun | L2 |
And she forgot the blue above the trees | Q |
And she forgot the dells where waters run | L2 |
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze | Q |
She had no knowledge when the day was done | L2 |
And the new morn she saw not but in peace | Q |
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore | E |
And moisten'd it with tears unto the core | E |
- | |
LIV | K |
- | |
And so she ever fed it with thin tears | Q |
Whence thick and green and beautiful it grew | E |
So that it smelt more balmy than its peers | Q |
Of Basil tufts in Florence for it drew | E |
Nurture besides and life from human fears | Q |
From the fast mouldering head there shut from view | E |
So that the jewel safely casketed | B2 |
Came forth and in perfumed leafits spread | B2 |
- | |
LV | E |
- | |
O Melancholy linger here awhile | Q |
O Music Music breathe despondingly | Q |
O Echo Echo from some sombre isle | Q |
Unknown Lethean sigh to us O sigh | E |
Spirits in grief lift up your heads and smile | Q |
Lift up your heads sweet Spirits heavily | Q |
And make a pale light in your cypress glooms | Q |
Tinting with silver wan your marble tombs | Q |
- | |
LVI | E |
- | |
Moan hither all ye syllables of woe | Q |
From the deep throat of sad Melpomene | L2 |
Through bronzed lyre in tragic order go | Q |
And touch the strings into a mystery | Q |
Sound mournfully upon the winds and low | Q |
For simple Isabel is soon to be | Q |
Among the dead She withers like a palm | G |
Cut by an Indian for its juicy balm | G |
- | |
LVII | E |
- | |
O leave the palm to wither by itself | E |
Let not quick Winter chill its dying hour | E |
It may not be those Baalites of pelf | E |
Her brethren noted the continual shower | E |
From her dead eyes and many a curious elf | E |
Among her kindred wonder'd that such dower | E |
Of youth and beauty should be thrown aside | B2 |
By one mark'd out to be a Noble's bride | B2 |
- | |
LVIII | E |
- | |
And furthermore her brethren wonder'd much | R2 |
Why she sat drooping by the Basil green | L2 |
And why it flourish'd as by magic touch | R2 |
Greatly they wonder'd what the thing might mean | L2 |
They could not surely give belief that such | R2 |
A very nothing would have power to wean | L2 |
Her from her own fair youth and pleasures gay | P2 |
And even remembrance of her love's delay | P2 |
- | |
LIX | Q |
- | |
Therefore they watch'd a time when they might sift | B2 |
This hidden whim and long they watch'd in vain | L2 |
For seldom did she go to chapel shrift | B2 |
And seldom felt she any hunger pain | L2 |
And when she left she hurried back as swift | B2 |
As bird on wing to breast its eggs again | L2 |
And patient as a hen bird sat her there | E |
Beside her Basil weeping through her hair | E |
- | |
LX | Q |
- | |
Yet they contriv'd to steal the Basil pot | B2 |
And to examine it in secret place | Q |
The thing was vile with green and livid spot | B2 |
And yet they knew it was Lorenzo's face | Q |
The guerdon of their murder they had got | B2 |
And so left Florence in a moment's space | Q |
Never to turn again Away they went | B2 |
With blood upon their heads to banishment | B2 |
- | |
LXI | Q |
- | |
O Melancholy turn thine eyes away | P2 |
O Music Music breathe despondingly | P2 |
O Echo Echo on some other day | P2 |
From isles Lethean sigh to us O sigh | E |
Spirits of grief sing not your Well a way | P2 |
For Isabel sweet Isabel will die | E |
Will die a death too lone and incomplete | B2 |
Now they have ta'en away her Basil sweet | B2 |
- | |
LXII | Q |
- | |
Piteous she look'd on dead and senseless things | Q |
Asking for her lost Basil amorously | P2 |
And with melodious chuckle in the strings | Q |
Of her lorn voice she oftentimes would cry | E |
After the Pilgrim in his wanderings | Q |
To ask him where her Basil was and why | E |
'Twas hid from her For cruel 'tis said she | Q |
To steal my Basil pot away from me | Q |
- | |
LXIII | Q |
- | |
And so she pined and so she died forlorn | L2 |
Imploring for her Basil to the last | B2 |
No heart was there in Florence but did mourn | L2 |
In pity of her love so overcast | B2 |
And a sad ditty of this story born | L2 |
From mouth to mouth through all the country pass'd | B2 |
Still is the burthen sung O cruelty | Q |
To steal my Basil pot away from me | Q |
John Keats
(1)
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