A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Sally Charin hopes someone can identify a poem beginning: “admit impediments, accept alarms, and random incompatibilities….” She recalls the author’s being identified as a Radcliffe graduate of the 1930s.

More queries from the archives:
“The saved man goes to the zoo with his child on a Sunday afternoon.”
“He that keepeth the law becometh master of the intent thereof.”
“Oh, do not think because I make  / Arrogant wounded unkind stabs / At suffering prowling man /  That I’m not partisan to all the fumbles in his mind. Whence else these lines? For whose sake?”

 “I’ll pretend I’m teaching” (July-August). No citations have arrived, but Eve Menger and Carlota Dwyer noted the quotation’s similarity to a remark often attributed to Soviet workers: “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.”

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

You might also like

Radcliffe Institute Announces 2026-2027 Fellows

Scholars will tap Harvard’s intellectual resources during the coming academic year.

For This Poet, AI is a Writing Partner

Sasha Stiles trained a chatbot on her manuscripts. Now, her poems rewrite themselves.

How Stories Help Us Cope with Climate Change

The growing genre of climate fiction offers a way to process reality—and our anxieties.

Most popular

Harvard Faculty Approve a Cap on A Grades

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

Harvard Alumni and Faculty Win Six Pulitzer Prizes

Winners include Jill Lepore, Bess Wohl, Pablo Torre, and Hannah Natanson.

Meet Harvard’s 2026 Student Commencement Speakers

Two undergraduates and a Ph.D. candidate will address the graduating class on May 28.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman in glasses gestures while speaking to two attentive listeners at a table.

How to Cook with Wild Plants

From wild greens spanakopita to rose petal panna cotta, forager and chef Ellen Zachos makes one-of-a-kind meals.

Illustration of two students in Harvard hoodies, one speaking animatedly to a phone, the other reading, looking annoyed.

We’re All Harvard Influencers, Like It or Not

In the digital age, it’s hard to avoid playing into the mythology.

Bronze statues of three historical figures under a stylized tree in a softly lit space.

The Costly Choice Native Americans Faced

How the Revolution reshaped indigenous New England