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

To Promote Healthy Habits in Patients, Start with the Doctors

Why Harvard Medical School is training physicians to think more like coaches

Harvard Law School Announces $31.4 Million Donation

The school’s largest-ever gift comes after a year of record fundraising.

How Philosophy at Harvard Saved Itself

As humanities shrink across higher education, one department is flourishing. Is its success a fluke, or a roadmap?

Explore More From Current Issue

Panoramic view of Harvard University with autumn foliage and a river under a cloudy sky.

The University is expanding industry ties and investing its own funds to support research, but neither will replace lost federal dollars.

A man with a long beard and formal attire stands next to a chalkboard with an equation.

Two tales of University greats—and an encounter with a Tiger

Colorful icons representing sleep, fruit, speech, and a mind with a water lily.

Take this quiz on six healthy habits that Harvard doctors recommend