Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), “The Forest of Wild Thyme” by Alfred Noyes, 1915; gouache and graphite on paper, 27 x 16 inches; Image courtesy of the Burchfield Penney Art Center Archives.
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, Vol.18, August 4, 1914
Monday, Aug 4, 2014
And so do my impressions of childhood evade me. Of late there have been rare instances when childhood impressions would flash across my mind—it is not that I wish to go back, or mourn for the past. I only wish I might look at nature new as I did then, with a mind steeped in fairy tales and illusions.
Alfred Noyes (Sept. 16, 1880 – June 25, 1958) was an English poet and as a pacifist who wrote many anti-war poems. Burchfield’s illustration for Noyes’ poem, “The Forest of Wild Thyme,” evokes “the way to fairy-land/Across the purple hill…Where flowers that haunt no mortal clime / Burden the Forest of Wild Thyme.”]
Charles E. Burchfield, August 4, 1914