Chapter and Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

More queries from the archive: 

A request for the text of a short story called “The Field of Purple Bloom,” originally read in serial form in a Midwestern farm journal.

And: “They are exiles when we invite them to dinner and refugees when we raise money for them.”

Also: “And by the way, whenever Cruelty is in town, they have him over for a sumptuous feast.”

 

“Stranger, go, tell the Spartans” (September-October 2010). Making use of the Index of American Periodical Verse, David Myatt has identified the poem “News from Thermopylae,” by Howard Lachtman, originally published in the 1972 winter issue of Poet Lore (67:4; 345).

 

“Lust is the lamp that lifts the gloom” (January-February). Both Dan Rosenberg and Wendie Howland suggested as the original of this misquoted couplet (first printed in the November-December 1995 issue) the lines “Love, which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb./ Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom,” which begin section xxi of the title poem in William Ernest Henley’s collection Hawthorn and Lavender: Songs and Madrigals. 

 

“No longer able to listen to the music of Mozart” (January-February). Dan Rosenberg traced this query from the March-April 1996 issue back to a Saturday Review column (42:3; 1959) by Cleveland Amory ’39 that relates the story of an overzealous reporter querying Albert Einstein about the impact of nuclear war.

 

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

Click here for the March-April 2011 issue table of contents

You might also like

Reconstructing the Berlin Wall

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Off the Shelf

The wealth gap, shamanism, the life of David Nathan, and more

Making Money Funny

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

Most popular

House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

The University must turn over all requested materials related to tuition and financial aid by mid-July. 

Global Reach

A new center in Shanghai reflects Harvard’s growing engagement with the People’s Republic.

The New Gender Gaps

What to do as men and boys fall behind

Explore More From Current Issue

Harvard Economist Nicole Maestas on Aging and Health Policy

The Harvard health economist not afraid to get in the weeds

Saluting the 2025 Centennial Medalists

Four alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are honored.

David Leo Rice on 'The Berlin Wall'

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.