"many a" -- singular or plural? Or just awkward?

[Mark Mandel]

Ditto.

  And it's many a mile I have been on this road,
  Many -- a mile -- I have gone.

Mark Mandel


On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 3:03 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> At 11/14/2008 12:13 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
> >   Chicago is many miles from here.
> >     vs. ?Chicago is many a mile from here.
>
> I had had the same feeling as Ann Burlingham; where she used
> "metaphorical" I was thinking "poetic".  And to me, in the above
> "many a mile" hints weariness in the journey, whereas "many miles"
> has no poetry.
>
> Joel

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