Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil: Key Quotes
- Created by: mhannah
- Created on: 26-02-18 17:08
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- Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil: Key Quotes (pt. 1)
- "young palmer in Love's eye"
- description of Lorenzo immediately offers us an image of a character who pines after love in the same way that pilgrims (palmers) in the Middle Ages religiously travelled to the Holy Land
- "malady"
- Love referred to as a sickness. demonstrates extent of their love and also foreshadows Isabella's mental illness to come
- "nightly weep"
- forbidden love between Lorenzo and Isabella causes bears physical turmoil and suffering; extent of their love
- "tenderer (x2)/pleasanter"
- stanza 2. repetition of tenderer shows that their love is continually growing and becoming more impassioned; use of superlative emphasises this
- "house, field or garden"
- stanza 2. reference to the domestic shows the delicacy of their love; also links with the nature and the purity of their love
- "fell sick/fell thin"
- stanza 5. significant that Isabella's emotionality and 'lovesickness'now has physical symptoms; demonstratesstrength of their love
- "I will drink her tears...startle off her cares."
- stanza 5. foreshadowing of events to come when Lorenzo's head literally absorbs her tears and this becomes a source of comfort to Isabella; she becomes obsessive over the head and it keeps her mind away from the "scares" of reality
- "his heart beat awfully"
- stanza 6. further evidence of love being pain
- "passion is both meek and wild"
- stanza 6. oxymoron which reflects a conflict of emotions within love
- "a dreary night of love and misery"
- stanza 7. love is a complicated experience for Lorenzo and Isabella
- "wintry cold"
- stanza 9. natural imagery and allusions in reference to their love
- "summer clime"
- stanza 9. their love extends over long periods of time. strong enough to change the seasons to Lorenzo
- stanza 9. natural imagery and allusions in reference to their love
- "grew, like a lusty flower."
- stanza 9. theme of growth; use of simile shows that their love is flourishing like a flower
- "tread upon the air"
- stanza 10. idealistic and heaven-like nature of their love
- "twin roses by the zephyr blown apart"
- stanza 10. juxtaposing ideas of a zephyr (soft gentle breeze) blowing apart (quite vicious/strong) two roses; delicacy of their love
- "pleasant veil" [of the stars]
- stanza 11. nature reflects the beauty and tenderness of their love; natural imagery/allusions suggests purity of their love
- "too many/too much" x2
- stanza 12. repetition shows the excessive and melodramatic nature of their love
- "richest juice in poison flowers."
- stanza 13. theme of love being painful and harmful; Keats saying that the strongest and more impassioned of loves do not come without the 'poison' of pain and heartache; foreshadowing
- Stanza 1-13
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