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 > Boats, Ice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1807-8

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verses (Inscriptions by Turner)’ c.1807-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Verso:
Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) circa 1807–8
D06713
Turner Bequest CI 87a
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 180 x 107 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
See Introduction and note to folio 85 verso of the sketchbook (D06709) for the background and subject of these verses, the demolition of Alexander Pope’s villa at Twickenham. Rosalind Mallord Turner’s reading published in the 1990 Tate catalogue is adopted here:
On Twickenham Banks as living sunbeams play
a Shepherd Boy his early lay
The flock
A Shepherd Boy with [labourers inserted] mien leads
his flock by Thames flowry meads
And the trembling throng the foaming rim leap
The pride of Thames
Fraught with the reeds which harbour sheep
his aged Grandsire sought
Alas my son nay too long thou soul of toil
have on my fears –
Old have sent them dolfull [around inserted] [to my breast deleted]
Each falling timber from the wall resounds
The mournfull rus[t] ling of the Aspen tall
At yestereve some ruin would befall
To or men ah little my
Ah little did I think yon hous’s fame
Would lose its once respected name

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1807–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-inscriptions-by-turner-r1130808, accessed 25 April 2024.