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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 144 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry 1811
D08635
Turner Bequest CXXIII 141a
Inscribed by Turner in pencil and ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove printing paper, 75 x 117 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with the following lines of verse:
all smooth and polished harshly sounding roll
and clamourous [?‘till’ or ‘fill’] the oceans great controul
Yet the last refuge for within this bay
To those who dare to cross the Atlantic Sea
Penszance [sic] [?Neyland] and little [?Limer’s] cove
Still offer safety to them to [?hove]
From the winds the winds that rage upon our Isle
And stormly bid [?favourites] not to smile
Deceitfull fierce [?noisily] frail
Often they tempt to sea the anxious sail1
Interspersed with drawings and the printed pages of Coltman’s British Itinerary, sixty-nine pages of this sketchbook are given over wholly or partly to these verses which Turner intended as a commentary for publication with the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England which he sketched on the 1811 West Country tour (see the introduction to the sketchbook). The first lines are on folio 18 verso (D08396), and the last on folio 207 verso (D08736; CXXIII 204a).
The previous passage, on folio 143 verso (D08633; CXXIII 140a), describes a shipwreck, following on from passages about the coast of West Cornwall. In line five here there are place names, beginning with Penzance; Wilton and Turner suggest that ‘Neyland’ and ‘Limer’ are respectively Newlyn and Lamorna, which lie a little to the south-west. They also suggest that the unclear last word of the next line is ‘house’, but ‘hove’ (to lie at anchor) appears more likely, particularly as it rhymes with ‘cove’ in the previous line.
There are views of Penzance in the Cornwall and Devon sketchbook, used on the same tour – see under Tate D41281 (Turner Bequest CXXV a 6). The next lines, on folio 149 verso (D08645; CXXIII 146a), continue the coastal theme and mention Mount’s Bay, which Penzance overlooks.
1
See Wilton and Turner 1990, p.174 (transcription, followed here with slight variations).
Technical notes:
The verse is written in ink; all but the first two lines are written over a draft in pencil.

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, 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-inscription-by-turner-draft-of-poetry-r1137112, accessed 25 April 2024.