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 31 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: Draft of Poetry circa 1809
D07404
Turner Bequest CVIII 31a
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 115 x 88 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Half the page is taken up with lines of poetry:
For love between them takes his rest
I am jealous of his downy nest
My rival in his lair I’ll kill
So I prithee dear Molly lye still
By the touch of thy lips sure loves band
By the critical moment no maid can with [‘- stand’ inserted above]
Then a bird in a bush is worth two in the [‘Hand’ inserted above]
O Molly dear Molly. – I will1
The poem begins (‘Be still my dear Molly dear Molly be still’) on the recto of this leaf (D07403), and the same verses appear, with variations, on both sides of folio 29 (D07400, D07401). For a concordance of the extensive passages of poetry in this book, see the sketchbook Introduction.

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
See Lindsay, Sunset Ship, 1966, pp.104–5 no.47, as ‘Be Still My Dear Molly’ (transcription, with last verse informed by the version on folio 29 verso); Lindsay 1975, p.16 (transcription of last verse only, following 1966 reading); Lindsay 1985, p.27 (transcription following 1966 reading); and Wilton and Turner 1990, p.165 (transcription, followed here with slight variations).

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-r1136600, accessed 08 May 2024.