It translates to "why did my tears please you more, my Philomel?" and does not appear to be a quotation from another work.
Schutt teaches English and creative writing at The Nightingale-Bamford School, where she serves as the faculty adviser for the school literary magazine Philomel and the Book Club.
In 2009, Putnam/Philomel published Artist To Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art, with contributors including Mitsumasa Anno, Quentin Blake, Carle, Tomie dePaola, Leo Lionni, Barry Moser, Robert Sabuda, Maurice Sendak and Rosemary Wells.
Today Philomel is a sprawling land establishment located at Devonport, New Zealand.
Philomel continued with the convoy as an escort and once it reached the Middle East, was detached for operations in the Persian Gulf.