He woke suddenly and completely. It was four o'clock, the hour at which his father had always called him to get up and help with the milking. Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him still! Fifty years ago, and his father had been dead for thirty years, and yet he waked at four o'clock in the morning. He had trained himself to turn over and go to sleep, but this morning it was Christmas, he did not try to sleep.
an excerpt from Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S Buck.
Why the writer doesn't use the word 'woke' in the 3rd line? And he instead uses 'waked'?
Best Answer
Pearl S Buck was a woman, so your question should ask why she used 'waked'. 'Woke' and 'waked' are both possible choices as the past tense of 'wake'. 'Waked' is seen by some as old-fashioned in modern speech and writing. However, Pearl S Buck was born in 1892, to parents born in the 1850s, and wrote 'Christmas Day in the Morning' in 1955, when she was aged 63.