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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Greenwich Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verses (Inscription by Turner) c.1808

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verses (Inscription by Turner)’ c.1808
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 14 Verso:
Verses (Inscription by Turner) circa 1808
D06748
Turner Bequest CII 14a
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 76 x 115 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For the longer draft poems to which Turner’s verses belong, see Introduction to the sketchbook. Finberg did not transcribe the verses on this leaf, and the reading given here was first made by Rosalind Mallord Turner for the 1990 Tate exhibition:
Winter [sobbing winds inserted] thy sobs bespeak decay
But yet with melting Pity’s eye entwine
Thy garments round the Lyric shrine
In [May inserted] While memory sweet each Seasons play
may sign each parting day
Turner continues to meditate on a monument to James Thomson, poet of the Seasons (1730); see folio 13 verso (D06746) for comment.

David Blayney Brown
March 2007

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Verses (Inscription by Turner) c.1808 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2007, 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-inscription-by-turner-r1130841, accessed 20 April 2024.