Chapter and Verse Quotation-Citation Correspondence Site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Diana Amsden writes, “Years ago, I believe I saw a silent-film scene of a woman, seen from behind, desperately pounding her fists on a huge city gate, and finally collapsing to her knees. Can anyone identify the movie?”

Jerry Kelley hopes that someone can identify a couplet he heard 50 years ago: “And he died as he lived, in a rich man’s garret, / In a borrowed shirt, and drinking claret.” He has searched for a source in vain ever since; his only clue—“likely a red herring”—is that the person who quoted the couplet also quoted lines he identified as written by Vachel Lindsay.

“The Game” (January-February 2011). Jonas Peter Akins, who asked eight years ago, to no avail, about a poem suggesting that “The Game releases us, changed and changeless, into the November evening,” possibly written by David T.W. McCord ’21, A.M. ’22, L.H.D. ’56, has now answered his own question: “In the coverage of the fiftieth anniversary of Harvard’s triumph over Yale, by that now familiar score, I found that the line was actually written by Roger Angell ’42, in a remembrance for the Harvard Football News of November 18, 1978. Angell was better, unsurprisingly, than my memory. ‘The Game picks us up each November and holds us for two hours and then releases us into the early darkness of winter, and all of us, homeward bound, sense that we are different yet still the same. It is magic.’ And so it is.”

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

You might also like

Being Undocumented In America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

“AI Anxiety”

The Undergraduate on the uneasy collision of technology and writing

How Maga Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Explore More From Current Issue

Student walking under bright stage lights shaped like smartphones displaying social media apps.

Two Years of Doxxing at Harvard

What happens when students are publicly named and shamed for their views?

Illustrated world map showing people connected across countries with icons for ideas, research, and communication.

Why Harvard Needs International Students

An ed school professor on why global challenges demand global experiences

Julie Riew, wearing a white dress, playing guitar and singing into a microphone on stage.

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.