[ADS-L] "have ever been"

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/12/06 3:33:35 PM, zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU writes:


> caught in passing on the radio on sunday, a woman talking about her
> enthusiasm for Star Trek: "I am, and have ever been,..."
>
> this struck me as literary/archaic, and the OED agrees with that
> judgment, treating the relevant uses of "ever" -- 'throughout all
> time' and 'always' -- as "now arch. or merely literary", with the
> most recent cites being from 1831 and 1885, respectively.
>

I remember a drinking song from college (or was it from Boy Scout camp?) that
had the line, "One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so." Isn't
this use of "ever" exactly the same in meaning?" And then there is Poe's raven
who quoth "Never more." But perhaps these are both archaic as well?

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