Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Song of the Telegraph, 1917-1952; watercolor on paper, 34 x 53 inches; Collection of William and Rose-Marie Shanahan
The sounds – what an Elysian feeling about the telegraph harp –
Other sounds – street cleaners scraping the brick pavement with their shovels – they are unseen – it sounds like ice-scraping on a warm “Before Spring” day –
Coal going in a cellar on an iron chute –
The November dusk, in the still woods a pin oak commences to rustle – the sound is cold & lonely but the telegraph harp! That sounds is not of the earth, it comes from afar off, out of the infinity of sky –
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, November 3, 1917