Christmas Phrases
A Mouse in Henry Livingston's House
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Another attempt at brainstorming the poetry styles was to look at which phrases in the Christmas poem were reused by either Henry Livingston or Clement Moore. For Henry to make use of a word or phrase before the Christmas poem was published was certainly more significant than for Moore to make use of it after the poem was published, since Moore would then be copying from the poem.

One example of Henry's reuse of phrases is "Happy Christmas," which he uses in a letter to Sally Welles published fifty years before the publication of the Christmas poem. Don Foster's investigation of early use of the phrase shows that the first publication of that phrase is in the Christmas poem!





Chapter 5:   0,   1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   7,   8,   9,   10,   11,   12,   13,   14,   15,   16

Slideshow Index,
Introduction,   Ch1: Mouse,   Ch2: Sarah,   Ch3: After Sarah,   Ch4: Locust Grove,   Ch5: Know,  
Ch6: Dunder,   Ch7: War,   Ch8: Unexpected,   Ch9: Economy,   Ch10: Dutch,  
Ch11: Politics,   Ch12: Religion,   Ch13: Work,   Ch14: Myths,   Ch15: Happy Xmas,   Epilog









        
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Slideshow Index

All Henry Livingston's Poetry,     All Clement Moore's Poetry     Historical Articles About Authorship

Many Ways to Read Henry Livingston's Poetry

Arguments,   Smoking Gun?,   Reindeer Names,   First Publication,   Early Variants  
Timeline Summary,   Witness Letters,   Quest to Prove Authorship,   Scholars,   Fiction  


   Book,   Slideshow,   Xmas,   Writing,   The Man,   Work,   Illos,   Music,   Genealogy,   Bios,   History,   Games  


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