Evidence that Fran's obsession with grammar decreases not as the years pass

An elegiac sonnet to mark the tragic demise of Mr Semi-Colon


We gather here today to pay respect;
he suffered much but then could take no more.
He lies here now; his time of pain has gone,
released at last from years of being ignored.
His early days had seen him rise to fame
as someone who could punctuate a list
of items far too long for comma use;
he made sure readers wouldn’t lose the gist.
A main achievement was the way he’d join
two sentences; this was so efficacious
when using a full stop was too abrupt
and using a conjunction too loquacious.
                Alas, we used him less and less and less;
                we unappreciated him to death.






Postscript: Inspired by this, Frances Garrood has written a poem about the exclamation mark.  Go
over here now to look at it.  

Comments

  1. Anonymous15/8/13 08:44

    I love semi-colons. It's annoying that I need my glasses to find them on my phone or I would use them in texts more often...Clever poem Fran :) :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill15/8/13 10:28

      Ha ha! Isn't the semicolon the wink? I still don't know how to do that stuff.

      Delete
  2. Frances Garrood15/8/13 09:02

    Brilliant poem, and sentiment. I use lots of semicolons; there's nothing that can really replace them. Oh, and colons, of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill15/8/13 10:29

      You are allowed in my club.

      Delete
    2. Frances Garrood15/8/13 13:49

      Let's get T shirts printed, shall we? Save the semicolon?

      Delete
  3. libby15/8/13 09:16

    Fran, I am quite often scared of commenting here as I know my grammar is not what it should be...good poem though! and a lovely photo in the 'about me'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill15/8/13 10:30

      I wouldn't dream of commenting on someone's grammar in the comments! (You should see my texts ....) And thanks - the photo was taken by my daughter because I'm doing a gig for a local charity and they wanted a bookish type of photo.

      Delete
    2. Frances Garrood15/8/13 13:48

      Oh, Fran. You could have put a semicolon after 'thanks'. A missed opportunity....sigh.

      Delete
  4. stephen Hayes15/8/13 09:54

    Please let me know where Mr. Semicolon has been laid to rest so I can send flowers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill15/8/13 10:32

      This is the problem, Stephen. No one can find him.

      Delete
  5. hausfrau15/8/13 10:10

    Perfect; I didn't know Mr.Semi-Colon had died. Thank-you for bringing him to my attention.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill15/8/13 10:33

      You are welcome. Now I just need to work on the schoolkids.

      Delete
  6. Martin15/8/13 13:59

    A fitting tribute to an unsung hero.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill16/8/13 01:16

      Unsung. Yes, of course he is. Maybe I should write him a song!

      Delete
  7. Linens and Royals15/8/13 14:31

    Well I'm pleased Mr.Semi-colon is dead and gone and I won't be sending flowers. I never knew when to use him him anyway. ;(

    ReplyDelete
  8. Steve16/8/13 00:59

    I use semi-colons all the time; some of us still adhere to the old ways.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Marty16/8/13 05:15

    I'll take the liberty of thanking you for English teachers everywhere. Now if we could just revive Mr. Fewer, who is being increasingly thrown under the bus (inaccurately) by Mr. Less.

    ReplyDelete
  10. broken biro16/8/13 06:40

    I only recently found out about them, dammit! I'm always slow catching on; I only discovered T-Rex a couple of years ago.

    (Is that a correct usage? Does that make it an 'undead' semicolon?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill16/8/13 10:14

      That was a perfectly valid semicolon, bursting with life. (When you say 'T-Rex', are we talking 'Marc Bolan' or 'dinosaurs'?)

      Delete
  11. Pam 16/8/13 15:05

    Ah yes! we mourn him now with pain and sorrow;
    But - can we hope he'll rise again tomorrow?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill19/8/13 13:48

      Indeed, I think we can have hope.
      But will the nation's students cope?

      Delete
  12. BadPenny17/8/13 03:09

    I'm always afraid I get my punctuation wrong and the Punctuation Police will pounce !
    I have a friend who corrects my spelling mistakes on emails if I haven't bothered with Mr Spellchecker. Why isn't there a Mr Punctuation checker ?

    Save the semicolon !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill19/8/13 13:50

      You have a FRIEND who corrects your emails? Are you SURE?

      Delete
    2. BadPenny21/8/13 05:16

      Yes, I asked him when I realized & he said he did. He writes stories & I guess bad spelling is painful for him ! It made me giggle. I sometimes make up words for things so he can't correct them !

      Delete
  13. SmitoniusAndSonata19/8/13 13:16

    From The 21st Century of Quotations I give you ,
    " We owe respect to the living ; to the dead we only owe truth ." Voltaire .
    And if I am going to be truthful , must confess I hardly ever spare a thought for the dear departed .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill19/8/13 13:50

      But ... but ... have you never heard of a white lie?..... So blunt. So cruel.

      Delete
  14. Ruth Leigh24/9/22 14:15

    I love him and I still use him sometimes

    ReplyDelete
  15. Deborah Jenkins24/9/22 14:23

    Haha, brilliant! I was trying to explain semi - colons to another teacher last week. I should have just shown her your poem!

    ReplyDelete

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