some rules are just made to be....

[springs]

So, not a double, but a triple. Okay 200 odd years ago, but, still....

"I lingered around them, under the benign sky; watched the moths fluttering amongh the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth."

That's the last line of wuthering heights and I love it.... and I love the soft sense the semi-colons give: my addiction just increased exponentially....

(on good last lines: So we beat on, boats against the current, borned back ceaselessly into the past. Wonderful...)

[Hex]

Isn't it a list? Aren't we allowed multiple semicolons in lists?

(who says we're not allowed multiple semicolons in one sentence?)

And -- deeply as I detest Wuthering Heights -- that is a lovely last line.

[springs]

Yes, but no colon to start the list, so there's a rule broken in there, somewhere. The thing is she is so good at linking the landscape to the emotions that even if the story of Heathcliff/Cathy isn't to taste - and I can see why - there's something so very powerful there. Her poetry's even better at it.

[Hex]

True enough. I don't hate it as much as I pretend -- I have read it all the way through at least twice, but I can't stand Heathcliff. Yurk.

Ye olde books seem to break the rules all over the place. 'North and South' is filled with head hopping and strange punctuation.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Rules of punctuation used to be different. That sentence from Wuthering Heights demonstrates that not all of the changes were good ones.

[I, Brian]

I would have thought the first semi-colon should be replaced by a full colon - however, I should think it depends upon the context. IF the proceeding sentence effectively introduces the scene then a list punctuated by semi's should be fine, I would have thought.

[Hex]

I don't know, because I think it's a list of things 'I' did -- so if you wanted to start with a colon it would be something like --

"This is what I did: I lingered around them, under the benign sky; watched the moths fluttering..."

In situations like this, I think the rules are stupid.

[Vertigo]

I think that sentence is fine with it's use of semicolons. I wouldn't say it is a list, put the implied pronoun in and each clause can stand on its own. However each clause is also building on and enhancing the picture of the previous clause(s). My understanding is that this is exactly what a semicolon is meant for.

[RcGrant]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

I think that sentence is fine with it's use of semicolons. I wouldn't say it is a list, put the implied pronoun in and each clause can stand on its own. However each clause is also building on and enhancing the picture of the previous clause(s). My understanding is that this is exactly what a semicolon is meant for.

That's how I read it too; not as a list at all.