weird structure/order with confusing negatives

1. “He was home but little” means he was only home a little, and gone most of the time. That’s a very old way of structuring sentences that is hardly used anymore, though. 2. This sentence is saying that he has been playing with the orchestra for so long that no one remembers a time when he didn’t play in it. His “not playing there” is the whole noun that no one remembered. Again, a very old way of structuring sentences. 3. I’m not really sure how to explain this one, it’s very nuanced. You could have the comma there, it’s just the difference between a figure that is little, old, bent, and withered (comma) and an old, bent, and withered figure that is little (no comma). I don’t think it makes a significant difference in the interpretation of the sentence, it was just the way the writer chose to describe the figure. 4. “When it is to be” is just an old way of saying when something WILL be in the future. When something “is to be”, it will be, later. You’d be more likely to hear “when is it going to be mine” or “when will it be mine” today. 5. “The most sluggish of pulses” is ONE pulse (the most sluggish pulse) whereas if you remove the “of” (to make “the most sluggish pulses”), your subject is now a plural “pulses”. The author is talking about stirring individual pulses, which happen to be sluggish, rather than stirring a group of sluggish pulses. This is also very nuanced, and you could remove the “of” and the sentence would still make sense.

1. "he was home but little" means he wasn't home very often. it's basically "he was home but not that much"; not that much = a little 2. This one is saying no one remembered a time he didn't play there, as in he played there as long as any one could remember 3. Often, size adjectives don't get separated from the next adjective. "Little old lady," "big green monster," etc. No idea why, just one of those things we do in English 4. Either works. They mean the same thing, this is just a little old fashioned sounding 5. Again, it's kind of an old fashioned thing, a literary flourish. It means the same thing as "the most sluggish pulse"

i would hope most native speakers graduate from high school understanding these literary usages.

None of this is archaic or specifically literary, you'll often read similar structures in modern writings too. 1: A more concise way of saying but not much, they had food but little etc. 2: This possibly seems unusual because many people use the incorrect grammar. If you write a thank-you card you may say: > Thanks for attending the event, your being there made a big difference. The distinction is that it's the act of being there that you are appreciating. 3: This is just the way clauses can be listed, if you remember from learning to use commas the rule here is that you can just remove them, so if you do that each one makes sense... > a little old figure > a little old, bent figure > a little old, bent, withered figure 4: Just an alternative phrasing. 5: The sentence would work without it, but the meaning would change to talking about a group of pulses. Here the sentence targets a singular item, the most sluggish of pulses. You could also use this like: > The atmosphere was electric, enough to cheer the most cynical of men.