Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Thomas Gutheil seeks the full text of a poem with a final couplet that runs, as best he recollects: “His claims to be brutally frank were just endless, / Until, to be brutally frank, he was friendless.”

More queries from the archives:

“Life is all right but for a bad 15 minutes at the end” (perhaps from Edward Gibbon)

“Not at the table, Amanda” (c. 1920s)

“Beginning in October effectively again”

“Childhood is a lost, enchanted land, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to find it again.”

The words to “My Little Papaya Tree,” heard sung on the radio to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas”

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

In her memoir All That's Unseen, Emilee Hackney explores religion, friendship, and home.

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

Shakespeare and Stephen King Have a Lot in Common

Shakespeare scholar Caroline Bicks studies horror and fear in literature. 

Most popular

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.

The Loneliness Pandemic

As the country isolates, are we all alone?

How Americans Turned Against Knowledge

Tom Nichols dissects the dangerous antipathy to expertise.

Explore More From Current Issue

Massachusetts Hall at Harvard Red brick building with a large clock on top, surrounded by green trees.

With a grade inflation vote and in the courts, the University argued that it’s taking steps to change.

A woman with long, silver hair rests her chin on her hand, wearing a black top.

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

A vibrant group of dancers in colorful outfits poses on a stage with shiny decorations.

The Harvard Arts Medalist wants his smash-hit Cats revival to reach “as many young queer people” as possible.