c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $str = q{$line};
 print qq{'$str'};
"
'$line'

##</code><code>##

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $remove = qr{ now \s+ brown }xms;
 ;;
 my $line = qq{how now brown cow \n};
 print qq{<$line>};
 ;;
 my $str = qr{$line};
 print $str;
 ;;
 ($line = $str) =~ s/$remove//;
 print qq{<$line>};
"
<how now brown cow
>
(?^:how now brown cow
)
<(?^:how  cow
)>