No, that won't work. You can do this though:

my ($present_1,$present_2,$present_3,$present_4,$present_5) = ($verb) x 5;

Using the x operator on a list produces the specified number of copies of the list - in this case 5 copies of ($verb), equivalent to ($verb,$verb,$verb,$verb,$verb).

As a side note, any time I see numbered variables I think array. So you might do this instead:

my @present = ($verb) x 5;

Then instead of $present_1 you write $present[0].

-sam