Of punctuations various, some doth kindle interest, whilst others doth not. In this discourse, we shall first address those that do not. Amongst them, the least interesting, yea, the most uninteresting of all, is the question mark. When it standeth alone or when it is used as a brand on cattle, or perchance when used in decoration, the question mark may be deemed acceptable. But in the realm of writing, it is completely, entirely, utterly without interest.
Is it not clear, when one doth pose a question, that a question is being posed? Any literate soul can discern when a question is a question as it is written in writing. So I ask thee, wherefore should one use the question mark? Moreover, it doth not harmonize with the form of ordinary printing, and so it pleases neither the eye nor the ear, and is therefore like a noun, merely an unnecessary name of something. A question is a question, anyone can discern that a question is a question, so why append a question mark when the question is already there in the writing?
Therefore, I could never bring myself to use a question mark, I always found it positively revolting, and now very few do use it. Exclamation marks share the same difficulty and also quotation marks, they are unnecessary, they mar the line of the writing or the printing, and anyway, if thou dost not know that a question is a question, what use is there of its being a question? The same thing is true of a quotation. When I first began writing, I found it simply impossible to use question marks, quotation marks, and exclamation points, and now anyone sees it that way. Perhaps one day they will see it some other way, but not at any rate anyone can and does see it that way.
One other small punctuation mark can stir feelings, and that is the apostrophe for possession. Feel as thou wilt about that, I can see and I do see that for many, for some, the possessive case apostrophe has a gentle, tender insinuation that makes it very difficult to definitively decide to do without it. One can do without it, I do, I mostly always do, but I cannot deny that from time to time I find myself having regrets and from time to time I insert it to make the possessive case. I do not like it, and leaving it out I feel no regret, there it is unnecessary and not ornamental, but inside a word and its s, well perhaps, perhaps it does appeal by its weakness to thy weakness. At least at any rate from time to time, I do find myself letting it alone if it has come in, and sometimes it has come in. I cannot positively deny but that I do from time to time let it come in.
So now, let us address the true matter of punctuation: periods, commas, colons, semi-colons, and the use of uppercase and lowercase letters.
I have had a long and complicated relationship with all these.
Let us begin with those I use the least: colons and semi-colons, and perhaps commas as well.
When I first took quill in hand, I felt a compulsion that writing should persist, I still harbor that sentiment, but when I first embarked on the journey of writing, I was wholly consumed by the necessity that writing should continue endlessly. If writing were to persist, what role had colons and commas in it, what role had periods, and what role had lowercase and uppercase letters in it, in the grand scheme of writing persisting, which was at that time the deepest need I felt in relation to writing. What had colons and semi-colons to do with it, what had commas to do, what had periods to do with it?
What had periods to do with it? Inevitably, no matter how deeply I felt the need for writing to continue, physically one had to pause from time to time, and if one had to pause from time to time, then surely periods must exist. Besides, I had always been fond of the sight of periods and I appreciated their function. Pausing from time to time did not truly hinder one's progress, it was not an obstruction, it was merely something that occurred, and as it happened as a perfectly natural occurrence, I did not disbelieve in periods and I employed them. I truly never ceased using them.
Furthermore, periods might later gain a life of their own, beginning to fragment sentences in arbitrary ways, as has recently happened to me in a poem I have penned called Winning His Way, of which I will later recite a portion. By the time I had composed this poem about three years ago, periods had come to possess for me a completely independent life. They could act as they thought best, and one might interrupt one's writing with them - that is to say, not truly interrupt one's writing with them, but one could choose to arbitrarily pause at times in one's writing, and thus they could be utilized, and you could use them. Periods could come to exist in this way, and in this way they could come to possess a life of their own. They did not serve you in any subservient manner as do commas, colons, and semi-colons. Yes, thou dost comprehend my meaning.
Periods possess a life of their own, a necessity of their own, a sentiment of their own, a time of their own. And that sentiment, that life, that necessity, that time can express itself in an infinite variety. This is the reason that I have always remained loyal to periods, so much so that, as I say, recently I have felt that one could require them more than one had ever required them before.
Thou canst perceive what an entirely different entity a period is from a comma, a colon, or a semi-colon.
There are two distinct ways of contemplating colons and semi-colons: thou canst regard them as commas, in which case they are purely servile, or thou canst regard them as periods, in which case using them can imbue thee with a sense of adventure. I can perceive that one might regard them as periods, but I myself never have. Alas, I began to perceive them as a comma and commas are servile, they possess no life of their own, they are dependent upon usage and convenience, and they are placed purely for practical purposes. Semi-colons and colons possessed for me from the outset this character, the character of a comma, and not the character of a period, and therefore I have decidedly never employed them. But now, albeit faintly and decidedly, I do perceive that they might well possibly possess something of the character of a period and thus it might have been an adventure to employ them. I truly do not think so. I believe that however lively or disguised they are, they are decidedly more comma than period and thus I truly cannot regret not having employed them. They are more powerful, more imposing, more pretentious than a comma, but they are a comma all the same. They truly possess, deep within them, fundamentally within them, the nature of a comma. And now, what does a comma do, what role does it play, and why do I harbor the sentiments I do about them?
"Commas, those servile punctuations, have no life of their own. An act of substitution, they replace one's own interest, and I, forsooth, have a great fondness for mine own interest in what I am doing. A comma, by holding your coat and putting on your shoes, keeps you from living your life as actively as you should lead it.
Verily, in the days of my writing The Making of Americans, active present verbs with long dependent adverbial clauses became a passion with me. Verbs and adverbs, aided by prepositions and conjunctions with pronouns, they hold the whole of the active life of writing.
Complications, they lead to simplicity, and so I have always had a liking for dependent adverbial clauses. With their variety of dependence and independence, they provide a rich tapestry of expression. Thus, it is clear why I would find commas degrading.
Think, dear reader, of anything thou truly enjoyest doing and thou will see what I mean. When it becomes truly difficult, you wish to disentangle rather than to cut the knot. And what does a comma do? A comma does nothing but make easy a thing that, if thou like it enough, is easy enough without the comma.
A comma is but a poor period that lets you stop and take a breath. But if thou wish to take a breath, thou should know thyself that thou wish to take a breath. And so, I almost never used a comma.
The longer, the more complicated the sentence, the greater the number of the same kinds of words following one after another, the more I felt the passionate need for them to take care of themselves, without the aid of a comma.
Thus is my feeling about punctuation in prose. In poetry, it is a little different, but more so, and I will expound on that anon. But that is how I feel about punctuation in prose."