Isabella, or The Pot of Basil by John Keats. Upton Sinclair, ed. 1915. The Cry for Justice

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

Isabella, or The Pot of Basil

By John Keats

(One of the loveliest of English poets, 1795–1821; a chemist’s assistant, who lived unrecognized and died despairing)


WITH her two brothers this fair lady dwelt,
Enrichèd from ancestral merchandise,
And for them many a weary hand did swelt
In torchèd mines and noisy factories,
And many once proud-quiver’d loins did melt	5
In blood from stinging whip,—with hollow eyes
Many all day in dazzling river stood,
To take the rich-ored driftings of the flood.

For them the Ceylon diver held his breath,
And went all naked to the hungry shark;	10
For them his ears gushed blood; for them in death
The seal on the cold ice with piteous bark
Lay full of darts; for them alone did seethe
A thousand men in troubles wide and dark;
Half-ignorant, they turn’d an easy wheel,	15
That set sharp wracks at work, to pinch and peel.