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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Perspective lectures c.1809-28 > Perspective Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry circa 1809
D07390
Turner Bequest CVIII 22
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 115 x 88 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘22’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 22’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with lines of poetry:
This which and which alone to fame
He builds a [‘himself’ inserted above] name in laying Argo frame
The planks are sever’d with a Sawyer’s art
From each that proved its Counterpart
And placed side by side alternatly
Then crossed by pieces transversely
Thus for the bottom that to waves unknown
That binds the world in with a liquid zone
Or thrown upon the hardend [‘stony’ inserted above] beach
Presumtuous man a [‘usefull’ inserted above] lesson teach
The sides are bent and turned with care
The seams are closed with tar and Hair
The powerfull head [‘like’ deleted] an ancient prow
Rakes forward with commanding brow
Sides timbers bolted to receive the shock
And bear her burthen on the dreadfull rock
Sails, scuppers, gridions, pintels all
and loud for pitch the noisy workmen call
Who can recount the names, or toil
Thro labyrinth himself to only coil
Like knotted rope that bining [i.e. ‘binding’] over spun
Twists into which can never be undone
Which twists and cannot be undone1
This is the third passage of a poem (‘Must toiling Man for ever meet disgrace’) which runs over seven pages from folio 20 recto (D07388) up to folio 26 recto (D07394); the previous section is on folio 21 recto (D07389), and it continues on folio 23 recto (D07391). For a concordance of the extensive passages of poetry in this book, see the sketchbook Introduction.
In the later lines, Jack Lindsay sees Turner comparing ‘the complex work of building with a labyrinth as difficult as the knots that twist into an overspun rope’ – suggesting a connection not only in theme but in date of composition with Turner’s observation of rope-making in Bridport on his West Country tour of 1811, as recorded in verse in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08563, D08569; Turner Bequest CXXIII 102a, 105a).2 Andrew Wilton has compared the ‘unashamed use of technical terms’ with the language of William Falconer’s narrative poem The Shipwreck3 (1762 and later revisions).
1
See Wilton and Turner 1990, p.164 (transcription, followed here with slight variations; also partly transcribed on p.98); see also Lindsay 1966, pp.66–7 (transcription of the first twelve lines to ‘tar and Hair’, with minor variations); and Omer 1975, p.697, following Lindsay’s reading.
2
Lindsay 1966, p.67; see also p.69; and see Lindsay 1985, p.11.
3
Wilton and Turner 1990, p.98.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2008

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry c.1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2008, 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-r1136586, accessed 18 May 2024.