Isabella or the Pot of Basil

IsabellaOr the Pot of BasilA Story from BoccaccioBy John KeatsIntroduction by Margaret RobertsonNarrated by Denis DalyIsabella, or the Pot of Basil (1818) is a poetic retelling of a story from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.The poem relates the sad fate of two victims of youthful love. The aristocratic and nubile Isabella is intended for marriage to an eligible suitor but falls in love with the plebeian Lorenzo. Isabella's brothers murder Lorenzo and bury his body, the location of which is revealed to Isabella by a ghost. She exhumes the body and re-inters the head in a pot of basil.