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The poem “Isabella or, The Pot of Basil” describes the forbidden love between two young adults. Lorenzo captured the heart of Isabella, but their love was frowned upon. Isabella had two older brothers who owned a business and were absorbed in their wealth. While Lorenzo was one of their workers. Since Isabella came from a rich family, she was not aloud to have encounters with the less fortunate. Although the two lovers would secretly see each other knowing it was wrong. Isabella’s older brothers found out about the meetings and grew very upset. One day, the brothers tricked Lorenzo to go outside of the city with them. Once they got Lorenzo where no one could see them, they murdered him and buried him in the ground. When the brothers returned from their outing, Isabella asked where Lorenzo had gone. The brothers responded that he had gone on a journey to explore foreign lands. Isabella began to become very depressed and was lost in a sea of questions. Eventually, after months went by Isabella laid in her room and cried for Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s ghost appeared and explained to her that her brothers had murdered him outside of the city. Isabella woke up in fear but was determined to find Lorenzo’s body, left with the image in her mind of the scene of the tragedy. Isabella found a piece of land that looked recently disturbed and within found her lover Lorenzo. With a knife in her hand she cut off his head and placed it in a pot. When Isabella returned home, she planted basil inside the pot watered by orange water, but mainly by her tears. It comforted Isabella to know that her lovers flesh was capable of growing a beautiful plant. The basil grew increasingly strong, until one day Isabella’s brothers found the pot. They took the pot away from her to discover hair coming out of the pot, after recognizing the face inside of the pot the brothers knew their murder was discovered and fled to Naples. Isabella eventually died with the basil and her lover still by her side.
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