J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Greenwich Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verses (Inscription by Turner) c.1808

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verses (Inscription by Turner)’ c.1808
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Verses (Inscription by Turner) circa 1808
D06723
Turner Bequest CII 2
Inscribed by Turner in pencil and ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 115 x 76 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CII 2’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For the longer draft poems to which Turner’s verses belong, see Introduction to the sketchbook and note to folio 1 verso (D06722). Finberg did not transcribe the verses on this leaf and the reading given here was first made by Rosalind Mallord Turner for the 1990 Tate exhibition:
In ardent Summer’s golden [?measure]
and balmy ether sweetness full
Sweet as the fragrant gale that blows
By dewy morn o[’e]r opening rose
Sweet as the flower that calls the bee
To revel deep in Luxury
As wild Thyme sweet on sunny bank
That morn’s first ray delighted drank
Sweet as the Honey’d drop that holds
The Wanton fly in treachrous folds
Such sweets does summer daily pour
Oer man oer field oer hill oer flower
The first two lines are written in pencil, the rest in ink.

David Blayney Brown
March 2007

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Verses (Inscription by Turner) c.1808 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2007, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-verses-inscription-by-turner-r1130816, accessed 18 April 2024.