In mournful number

A look at the word ‘number’ as used and connoted in language and grammar.

THE above title comes from the opening stanza of the poem The Psalm Of Life by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882): “Tell me, not in mournful numbers, / Life is but an empty dream! / For the soul is dead that slumbers, / And things are not what they seem.” No, I’m not about to talk about the lofty language and theme of the poem nor about poetry in general. Rather I’m just homing in on the word “number” to be used as the topic of this article.