“For cruel ‘tis,” said she

Piteous she look’d on dead and senseless things,
Asking for her lost Basil amorously;
And with melodious chuckle in the strings
Of her lorn voice, she oftentimes would cry
After the Pilgrim in his wanderings,
To ask him where her Basil was; and why
‘Twas hid from her: “For cruel ‘tis,” said she,
“To steal my Basil-pot away from me.”

— John Keats, Isabella