The semicolon is an underappreciated and underused (okay, often misused) punctuation mark. This author, via the inimitable Grammar Girl, compares the poor forsaken semicolon to so many of us who are lucky in cards, as they say.
Dear Semicolon
Dear Semicolon,
My sweet misunderstood darling,
I swear that even in times when
It feels the whole world has turned
Against you,
My love will not falter.
How many times,
Before we met, did I question
Whether to use a comma or a period?
Those were the lost times,
Before knowledge of you graced my life.
Where have you been all my life?
Was my thought. But you had been waiting
Patiently below my little finger,
Which was too timid to touch you.
You were everything I was looking for.
For years, I had wanted to
Link two stand-alone sentences,
To show that they depend on each other,
Though they stand alone.
But my love for you, sweet Semicolon,
Goes beyond the basic need for you
And relief at finding you.
I am in love with your very essence, purpose.
You join two sentences,
Which are independent, and make
Them stronger by bringing them together,
Much like love itself joins two people,
Who are independent and
Yet somehow belong together,
Are better together.
Your devoted lover,
Connie Fusedwriter
Célèste Brott
Comment Love