[John Whitworth]

Thank you, Jayne. I shall do that.

[Susan d.S.]

I like Jayne's edit. Untethered to actual words punctual marks are off-putting little things, aren't they?

[George Simmers]

I prefer the version with marks instead of words - makes the reader do a bit of work, which is usually a good thing.

[Susan d.S.]

Ellipsis signals...hesitation, and exclamation, excitation!
To balance loads, a comma tows. To rehash-- we hire a dash.
Capitals Lead and Emphasize, dwarfing letters half their size.
The sweet and small apostrophe averts plural catastrophes.

Punctilious, the blunt full stop is grammar's tireless traffic cop.*
The brackets (sanitation guys) enclose just what a phrase denies.
Quotation marks with tongs suspend the words you do not “comprehend“.
Should you desire to inquire, mark with question’s twisty gyre.
For heavy lifting take in hand a squat & muscled ampersand.
@ points to a virtual place, toils the roads of cyberspace.

Humble marks, our punctuation, serve in every situation.
Every stroke, or strike of key, compounds their abject slavery.
Unpaid labourers of the word, couriers and serfs unheard;
If un-tethered from their master, it shall intimate disaster.
Should they gather in a restive mob, they'll disdain to do their job.
Collectively, a motley crew--they go on strike, and shout: @#$%^&* you!

*was: "Punctual and to a point, periods prose with sense anoint,
Without cease, they call "full stop!," grammar's tireless traffic cop" (thanks, Jerome!)


A few questions:

What is the name of an @ ? (L11)
I believe standard British punctuation has the period or full stop after (not inside) the quotation marks? (L7 ).
Does British English ever refer to full stops as "period"s?
Thanks,
Susan

[John Whitworth]

Susan, An @ is an 'at'. It used to be used in itemised bills, as 375 grommets @ 2d a grommet + 74 punnets @ 1s and 3d a punnet = ? The bane of my life in arithmetic lessons before the invention of the calculator and the decimal currency.

We do use 'period' in that way.

[Susan d.S.]

Thanks, John. The poem is still rough, but it was definitely inspired by the unease your first version provoked in me. All those cheeky marks taking over the page. They must know their place! Best, Susan

[FOsen]

Though other marks earn marks for clarity
And order, one’s upsetting, rude and rash—
A prima donna of irregularity—
Let’s praise the reckless, headstrong, heedless dash—

It beats—at least this is my private thesis—
The stolid, dotty, old ellipsis
At mimicking—Eurek—aposiopesis—
The force with which a sudden insight grips us—

Pointless, it draws us on while yelling, “Pause!”
It has what Dickinson and Sterne both sought—
It lets one build one’s Babel clause-on-clause.
It renders the unsaid, the great un-thought

And crashes narratives before they’re done—
Distracts us while another fragment’s sinking—
It’s like that poem that ends—you know the one—
Of what was it—just now—that I was thinking?

Frank

[David Anthony]

That's brilliant--Frank.
Best regards,
David

[FOsen]

Thank you, Davidf. I know you know the poem referred to.

[John Whitworth]

Nice one, Frank, though I confess with shame that I do not know the poem referred to. There's one by Robert Graves that ends with a comma.