Quotation Q&A

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

J.P. Akins requests the complete text of a poem he remembers from his youth about the Harvard-Yale game and the way it “releases us, changed and changeless, into the November evening. ” He thinks it may be the work of the late David McCord ’21, L.H.D. ’56.

 

From our archives, here are more as-yet-unsourced phrases and aphorisms, in hopes that a reappearance, in print and online, will yield identifications.

“Whereas the music of Beethoven as-pires to heaven, the music of Mozart was written from there.”
“…and rain, that graybeard sing….”
“…easier to imagine the weather putting something off because of Miss ….”
“…like one of the seven deadly sins wrapped up in the cloak of the other six.”
“Alas, we would no longer be able to listen to the music of Mozart.”
“Cynicism is the fruit of disappointed hopes that were never well justified to begin with.”
“Lust is the lamp that lifts the gloom./ Lust is the light that fills the room.”


Send inquiries and answers to Chapter and Verse, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

Most popular

Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time

Further links to Jeffrey Epstein surface in newly released files.

The Science of Happiness

This doesn’t feel like a normal academic conference. True, the three-day Positive Psychology Summit is a sellout, with 425 attendees...

Chan School of Public Health Department Chair Departs for UCLA

Kari Nadeau, an environmental health leader, will serve as the dean of the Fielding School of Public Health.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman gazes at large decorative letters with her reflection and two stylized faces beside them.

The True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard

How an abundance of A’s created “the most stressed-out world of all.”

Purple violet flower with vibrant petals surrounded by green foliage.

Bees and Flowers Are Falling Out of Sync

Scientists are revisiting an old way of thinking about extinction.