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

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

The popular Harvard English professor published Under Water this spring.

Author and Harvard Divinity School writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams finds beauty in the world around us.

Most popular

In 2004, a frenzy spread across Harvard Yard in days. Four billion users later, we are only just catching up.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Alexander Pascal, the executive director of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, says governments should not passively accept that AI is inevitable.

Explore More From Current Issue

Three young women posed side by side against red background.

The 2026-2027 Ledecky and Summer Undergraduate Fellows

Runners compete on a track, with a Harvard athlete in the foreground and others behind.

After a historic 2025-26 season, athletes eye NCAA championships.

A glowing bulb shape surrounded by colorful, swirling energy lines against a blue background.

Harvard researchers achieve medical breakthroughs in cancer therapy and infection control.