Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

dylancatlow OP t1_j8p5yte wrote

Reply to comment by Bonneville865 in TIL that the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night" was the opening line to an actual novel published in 1830, but runs on for another 51 words: "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which..." by dylancatlow

Semicolons aren't interchangeable with periods, otherwise we wouldn't bother with them. What they accomplish often could be easily inferred from the context anyway, but ambiguity of that sort can be jarring and unpoetic. If what followed the semicolon was not equally terrible, the sentence might have been salvageable.

−3