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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