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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Sandycombe Lodge c.1808-12 > Windmill and Lock Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry on Pope's Villa c.1808-11

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry on Pope's Villa’ c.1808-11
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry on Pope’s Villa circa 1808–11
D08064
Turner Bequest CXIV 77
Pencil on white wove paper, 87 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘77’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXIV – 77’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with poetry:
To thee whose Villa once this shore along
When [‘And’ inserted above] Thames rolld glittering upon Alex song
Makes chequered shades the Memry loves to meet
And Time and reput[...] loved to greet
Thy dissolving waters [?leads] a distant skies
Sad [?Monument] of worth to wondring eyes
And cold rancour by rich impulsive dyes
[?Sinks].. but men of tragic shores
Rest here in peace from thy [?dreer lives]
Till Nature shall even in the course
and bear the marks of pity not of force
To Art and music stand here thy
And tell to all to ask
    that Pope did [?assuage]1
This is a variation on the draft concerning the 1807 demolition of Alexander Pope’s villa on folio 4 recto (D07964), under which the subject is discussed.

Matthew Imms
January 2012

1
See Wilton and Turner 1990, p.169 (transcription, followed here with slight variations).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry on Pope’s Villa c.1808–11 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2012, 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-a-draft-of-poetry-on-popes-villa-r1134843, accessed 28 September 2025.