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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Lowther Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) 1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verses (Inscriptions by Turner)’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Verso:
Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) 1809
D07950
Turner Bequest CXIII 62a
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 114 x 83 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These verses were first transcribed by Rosalind Mallord Turner, whose reading is followed here:
The rushy rill the stoney gill
The prickly tuft, the velvet moss
Upon the moors Savannah shew
While ... with briney blue
The falling dew or cloudy veil
Oer the empurpled moor prevail
And scarce the morning usher in
But man their murderous power begin
Wide roves the dog whose acute scent
Oer every wondring escape prevent
The humid vapour sent the gales
Lo he soars, but soaring fails
Headlong the father of broods soon falls
Whose cackling note the youth full calls
Wide roves the widow tremulous and weak
To [seek deleted] some more distant covert seek
But vain her hopes her care and pain
Still man more keen pursues his game
This passage belongs to the longer poem about a shooting accident for which see Introduction to the sketchbook and note to folio 13 verso (D07873).

David Blayney Brown
August 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Verses (Inscriptions by Turner) 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2009, 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-r1135906, accessed 27 April 2024.