Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Thomas Engelsing would like to learn the source of the following lines: “And now hear this, my ruder truth, thou art composed of lust unchained and most vile flux.”

 

Royall Moore hopes that someone can provide a citation for the phrase “North northwest the path of culture” (i.e., Egypt to Mesopotamia to Greece, Rome, Europe, and the New World)—a line he heard on a radio broadcast by Robert Frost, who was reading from his poems.

 

Tobe Kemp seeks a provenance for his family’s longtime expression, “And I’m the dumpsy dido that can do it.”

 

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

America’s Past, Opera's Future: 11 New Books from Harvard Authors

These newly released novels, histories, and memoirs grapple with identity in all its forms.

The Year a Beat Poet Squatted at Harvard

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

How Adam Ehrlich Sachs Writes Absurd and Beautiful Fiction

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

Most popular

Harvard Academic Workers Begin Strike

A second union joined graduate students on the picket line, emptying labs and classrooms.

New Names Proposed for Harvard Extension School Degrees

Long pushed for, the changes would be part of a broader rebranding for the Division of Continuing Education.

Remembering Judge Richard A. Posner

Contributing editor Lincoln Caplan’s 2015 feature of the prolific judge

Explore More From Current Issue

A smiling man in a brown plaid suit stands outdoors with greenery in the background.

The professor and former Harvard College dean is the next president of Harvard Magazine’s Board of Directors

A woman jogs on a path beside a boy riding a bicycle, surrounded by trees.

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

Two fans celebrate in front of a TV showing a football game.

A new Harvard Kennedy School project aims to harness the power of feral fandom.