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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Cheshire, Derbyshire, North Wales ... > Derbyshire Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) 1808

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verses (Inscriptions by Turner)’ 1808
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Verso:
Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) 1808
D07173
Turner Bequest CVI 35a
Inscribed by Turner in pencil and ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 185 x 108 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Written in pencil and ink, with lines sometimes repeated in both, Turner’s verses read:
[in pencil] Sweet the ... to the Bee
Sweet as the Arab shiny tree
Sweet the morning dew that shew
Or the wild Thyme sap winter bed
Sweet as the fragrant glade that blow[s]
By dewy morn oer opening rose
Sweet as the flower that calls the Bee
To revel deep in Luxury
Sweet as wild Thyme on Sunny bank
That morns first ray dew in hath drank
Such sweets does summer gaily pour
Oer Man & field thro hill and flower
That Man a thrill with
Sweet as the honey drop that shines
That
[in ink] Hail life returning balmy spring
Thy praise of Summers insects sing
Autumn. thy worth the field proclaim
All Natures chills at Winter’s name
This is another passage or variant passages from a poem about autumn, begun on folio 2 verso of the sketchbook (D07134). The text given here is based on the reading made by Rosalind Mallord Turner for the 1990 Tate exhibition. A more coherent version of the passage is on folio 36 (D07174).

David Blayney Brown
July 2010

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) 1808 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2010, 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-r1129599, accessed 26 April 2024.