John Keats' Isabella

John Keats' Isabella

Love is everywhere, and, even though love is not tangible, people refuse to believe that it exists. Perhaps their belief in love is what creates love, or perhaps it is the other way around. The greatest love is found when one least expects it as well as in people one least expects to find it in. Such an occurrence takes place in Isabella by John Keats. In this poem, two young people, Isabella and Lorenzo, fall in love, only to find that the sweetest and deadliest love is the love hidden away from the prying eyes.

Like every marketed love story out there, the poem starts off with two souls who secretly admire each other, yet are too afraid to admit it. In a society that at that time would quite possibly think lowly of the match, for why else would the two be so shy with their affections? Keeping their feelings to themselves seems to be the best solution. Of course, one can argue that the reason Isabella and Lorenzo are so hesitant to share their affections, is only natural of two human beings that are not sure of each other’s feelings and views. Whether or not they fear each other’s reactions of a confession of love, love cannot be kept inside, for it is a force that stirs the mind up.

In the first stanza of the poem, the reader finds out and is puzzled by the fact that Isabella and Lorenzo, live in the same house. One may suppose that Lorenzo works for Isabella’s parents or is a guest, or even horrifyingly a relation of Isabella. Those speculations notwithstanding one can see that the two can barely be in each other’s presence without wanting to confess their true love for each other. A perfect example of their feelings is:

They could not sit at meals but feel how well

It sooth ea...

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... child: (44 – 47)

Though Lorenzo knows the value of having Isabella and the happiness that they can both experience, it is hard for him to open himself up and become vulnerable. Yet again he is overcome by anguish, as he delays his confession, but as Isabella grows paler with sickness his passion and love finally outreaches his fear. He confesses his love and all is well. After overcoming both Lorenzo’s shyness and Isabella’s love- sickness, the two are quite happy as shown by these lines: “Great bliss was with them, and great happiness /Grew, like a lusty flower in June’s caress” (71 – 72). The greatest reward for the two lovers seems to be the happiness they reaped after a mild struggle of hearts.

Works Cited

John Keats. Isabella. English Romantic Poetry . Ed. Stanley Appelbaum.

Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1996. 190 – 192.