use strict;
use warnings;

my $para = 'This is a wilma line
         barney is on this line
         but this line ends with fred
         ** this line has barney in the middle **
         and a final dino line';

my $count = 0;

for my $line (split /\n/, $para)
{
    printf "line %d: >%s< -- barney %sfound\n", ++$count, $line,
            $line =~ /^\s*barney/ ? '' : 'not ';
}