Chapter & Verse

John Mitchell requests the source and the rest (if any) of a ditty that begins...

John Mitchell requests the source and the rest (if any) of a ditty that begins "'Twas midnight on the ocean,/Not a streetcar was in sight./I went down to the corner store/To buy myself a light./ The man behind the counter/Was a woman old and gray/Who used to sell bananas/On the road to Mandalay."

Andrew Webster seeks the author's name and the rest of a poem that begins "No matter what happens to man/ The world is well made, though."

A. Shneur Horowitz wonders who described children as "that outlaw band."

Timothy Fleck hopes someone can provide the correct wording and a source for the assertion, "There are only three true arts: [?], [?], and pastry decoration. Architecture is a branch of pastry decoration."

June Skye Szirotny asks if anyone can provide an authoritative source for Richard Ellmann's assertion, in his 1973 essay "Dorothea's Husbands," that Beatrice Potter Webb referred to Herbert Spencer as Casaubon, the elderly scholar in George Eliot's Middlemarch.

"Truro" (January-February). Frank Kelly Jr. was first to identify "Memory of Cape Cod," from The Harp Weaver and Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem was read at the funeral mass of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

"hell-fire sunset" (January-February). Cathe Giffuni identified "Wild Wales," in Sylvia Townsend Warner's Scenes of Childhood and Other Stories, as the source.

Most popular

Harvard Faculty Approve a Cap on A Grades

Reforms to reduce grade inflation will take effect in the fall of 2027.

The 1884 Cannibalism-at-Sea Case That Still Has Harvard Talking

The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens changed the course of legal history. Here’s why it’s been fodder for countless classroom debates.

Harvard Discloses Top Earners’ Compensation

The University files its annual report for tax-exempt organizations.

Explore More From Current Issue

Brick archway with a sandy base, surrounded by wooden planks and boxes in a dim space.

How the American Revolution Freed a Future Abolitionist

Darby Vassall, an enslaved child freed after the Battle of Bunker Hill, dedicated his life to fighting for liberty.

A colorful hummingbird hovering by vibrant flowers.

Discoveries

Short takes on cutting-edge research

Historical scene in colonial Boston depicting British soldiers confronting civilians, with smoke rising, in a city street.

Houghton Library Displays Revolution-era News and Propaganda

A new exhibit reveals how early Americans learned about the war.