Snow Storm: Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps, 1812
Oil on Canas, 146 x 237.5 cm, London, The Tate Gallery
Fallacies of Hope
Craft, treachery and fraud - Salassian force,
Hung on the fainting rear! then Plunder seiz'd
The victor and the captive; - Saguntum's spoil,
Alike became their prey: still the chief advanc'd,
Look'd on the sum with hope:- low, broad and wan;
While the fierce archer of the downward year
Stains Italy's blanch'd barrier with storms.
In vain each pass, ensanguin'd deep with dead,
Or rocky fragments, wide destruction roll'd.
Still on Campanis's fertile plains - he thought,
But the Loud breeze sob'd, Capua's joys beware!'
A poem to accompany Turners painting, which he often practiced and wrote to accompany his paintings..
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