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 26 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry circa 1809
D07394
Turner Bequest CVIII 26
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 ‘26’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 26’ bottom right, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
About half the page is taken up with lines of poetry:
Even Argo’ self had gone to wreck
Had not the Artificers hopes
Rely’d on self instead of ropes
Bore Argo safe from all alarms
Eneas like upon his Arms
Rage disappoints fired his breast
He plunged her into Thame [‘distrest’ inserted above] breast
You shall no longer loose your prize
She is good for nothing dam her eyes1
This is the last passage of a poem (‘Must toiling Man for ever meet disgrace’) which runs over seven pages from folio 20 recto (D07388); the previous section is on folio 25 recto (D07393). For a concordance of the extensive passages of poetry in this book, see the sketchbook Introduction.
Jack Lindsay has noted that the ‘great archetypal ship thus ends ... as a sort of child’s boat that can be thrown into the water’, which he takes as a sign of Turner’s ‘poetic frustration’.2 This theme of childish loss as a metaphor for greater misfortunes echoes on in Turner’s work as late as his 1840 painting The New Moon; or, ‘I’ve Lost My Boat, You Shan’t Have Your Hoop’ (Tate N00526).3

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
See Wilton and Turner 1990, p.164 (transcription, followed here with slight variations); see also Lindsay 1966a, p.69 (transcription with minor variations), Lindsay 1966b, p.18 (transcription of last four lines), and Omer 1975, p.698, following Lindsay’s reading.
2
Lindsay 1966a, p.69; see also Lindsay 1966b, p.18.
3
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.238 no.386 pl.389; see Lindsay 1985, p.11.

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-r1136590, accessed 04 April 2026.