Isabella or; The Pot of Basil

Isabella or; The Pot of Basil, a poem written by John Keats in 1818 chronicles the life of two forbidden lovers, and two spiteful brothers.  Isabella and Lorenzo, a family worker, live in two different social classes but have fallen in love together. The lovers meet in secrecy whenever and wherever they can.  They try to hide it from Isabella’s two brothers but, despite all of Isabella and Lorenzo’s efforts the brothers find out.  To avoid a scandal the brothers act as if nothing is happening. After the situation starts to get out of hand, the brothers make a plan to sabotage the relationship. They take Lorenzo to a nearby city and lure him to the forest. There the brothers murder Lorenzo and begin the travel back home. Upon arriving home Isabella asks where Lorenzo is. The brothers tell Isabella that he was offered a job across the sea. Isabella, grief stricken, can’t believe that he would just leave.  She retreats to her room and becomes very reserved. While sleeping one night she is visited by the ghost of Lorenzo who explains what happened to him. Isabella can’t believe what she hears so the next day she sneaks out to go and find his body. When she arrives at the spot where the body should be she begins to dig and uncovers the body of her lover, Lorenzo. Isabella then cuts off his head and wraps it in her scarf. At her house she kisses it one last time and wraps it in her best scarves then buries it beneath a potted basil plant. She sits by the basil plant night and day and cries. Her tears make the basil plant grow to a tremendous size. The brothers become worried that Isabella is spending all her time with the plant. SO one day while Isabella is away from the plant the brothers sneak it out and take the plant out. Seeing the rotted face, they realize that Isabella knew they killed Lorenzo. Horrified, they fled the country and Isabella died by the side of the plant.