use strict;
my $str = 'we
all
have
a
unique
perspective
on
the
we all have a unique perspective on the
we all have a unique perspective on the
world
around
us
and
believe
it
or
not
world around us and believe it or not
world around us and believe it or not
';
my $regex = qr/\w+\s*\n|([\w ]+)\n*(\1\n+)*/mp;
my $subst = '\\2';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html