"I love semicolons and colons. And punctuation serves to indicate rhythm. A semicolon is a longer pause than a comma, and a colon means really sitting back and taking note, but doesn't indicate a conclusion, like a period mark, or, as the English class it, a full stop."
--A Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L'Engle
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I fell in love with this book when I was reading it some months ago. This passage was one of (many) favourites. I've long paid attention to my punctuation, using commas carefully (and at times, "wrongly") to facilitate rhythm and meaning. It was this reflection of L'Engle's, however, that first introduced the concept of using colons artfully, a new writing technique that I've been playing with recently. Today, working on another (as yet unpublished) blog entry, I thought of this quote again, and since I'm hanging out on the campus of my alma mater, I went to the library, found the book, and read the passage aloud to my sister... and then shared it with you as well.
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I realise fully that it will be a small percentage of my readership who recognise the artistry allowed by thoughtful manipulation of grammatical rules: this post is for me: and for you.
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