Literary Analysis
We will now examine the primary literary inspiration for John Everett Millais’ painting Isabella. As characteristic of Pre-Raphaelite art, Millais was inspired by poetry, in this case, John Keats’ poem The Pot of Basil. This poem originates from "The Poetical Works of John Keats." It is a story featuring the main characters Isabella and Lorenzo, a fated pair of lovers who could not marry due to Lorenzo’s economic and social status. Isabella’s brothers wished to marry her off to someone wealthy and were therefore displeased with her affection for Lorenzo. As a result, her brothers killed Lorenzo and buried him in the forest. Isabella was stricken with grief and had a dream in which Lorenzo showed her the place where he was buried. Upon finding his body, Isabella took Lorenzo’s head and buried it in a pot of basil which she watered perpetually with her tears.
Below are three excerpts from the poem "The Pot of Basil". Read the stanzas quietly once and then read them aloud the second time. Express and experience the emotion of the language as Keats recounts this sad tale. Keep in mind how this literary piece could have impacted the artistic mind of Millais as he read it for the first time.
The Pot of Basil- John Keats (1795–1821) The Poetical Works of John Keats. 1884.
STANZAS 1, 2, 27, 28, 52, & 53
1. FAIR Isabel, poor simple Isabel!
Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye!
They could not in the self-same mansion dwell
Without some stir of heart, some malady;
They could not sit at meals but feel how well
It soothed each to be the other by;
They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep
But to each other dream, and nightly weep.
2. With every morn their love grew tenderer,
With every eve deeper and tenderer still;
He might not in house, field, or garden stir,
But her full shape would all his seeing fill;
And his continual voice was pleasanter
To her, than noise of trees or hidden rill;
Her lute-string gave an echo of his name,
She spoilt her half-done broidery with the same.
27. So the two brothers and their murder’d man
Rode past fair Florence, to where Arno’s stream
Gurgles through straiten’d banks, and still doth fan
Itself with dancing bulrush, and the bream
Keeps head against the freshets. Sick and wan
The brothers’ faces in the ford did seem,
Lorenzo’s flush with love.—They pass’d the water
Into a forest quiet for the slaughter.
28.There was Lorenzo slain and buried in,
There in that forest did his great love cease;
Ah! when a soul doth thus its freedom win,
It aches in loneliness—is ill at peace
As the break-covert blood-hounds of such sin:
They dipp’d their swords in the water, and did tease
Their horses homeward, with convulsed spur,
Each richer by his being a murderer.
52. Then in a silken scarf,—sweet with the dews
Of precious flowers pluck’d in Araby,
And divine liquids come with odorous ooze
Through the cold serpent pipe refreshfully,—
She wrapp’d it up; and for its tomb did choose
A garden-pot, wherein she laid it by,
And cover’d it with mould, and o’er it set
Sweet Basil, which her tears kept ever wet.
53. And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees,
And she forgot the dells where waters run,
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not: but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore,
And moisten’d it with tears unto the core.
Reflect: Re-examine Millias’ painting again for another 3 minutes. After reading the poem, what do you notice? How has your perspective changed? What does this piece say about the evolving philosophies of the Brotherhood concerning art?
This page has paths:
- The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: Founding Members Isabella Anderson