Revive the semi-colon!

I have read a lot of books and been moved by some truly wonderful passages of writing; but nothing — nothing — that can reach the heights this one paragraph from Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway soared to. I thought I had stumbled on a hidden gem, but apparently it's been spotted by a lot of other people too. Here it is:

As for the other experiences, the solitary ones, which people go through alone, in their bedrooms, in their offices, walking the fields and the streets of London, he had them; had left home, a mere boy, because of his mother; she lied; because he came down to tea for the fiftieth time with his hands unwashed; because he could see no future for a poet from Stroud; and so, making a confidant of his little sister, had gone to London leaving an absurd note behind him, such as great men have written, and the world has read later when the story of her struggles has become famous.

I don't know about you but I don't exhale during that sentence. I am led through it, my toes floating just above the ground, till I am put back down again gently and I can breathe once more.

Why does it do that to me and to a lot of other people who read it? There is only one period and that is at the very end. One sentence 107 words in length: a stream of thought uninterrupted by anything so vulgar as a stop.

Do you have any idea of the artistry required to write not only that one paragraph but an entire book with that lightness of touch? I don't. I can only guess at it. But while I'd not copy Woolf's style, let alone her writing, I can and have learnt so much from her use of punctuation. I used to think they were mere mechanical devices, holding sentences up like rivets, but they are more like the deft suggestions of form you get from an impressionists brush; at least in skilled hands.

I use semi-colons a lot in my writing, though not as much as I could. The reason I do is Virginia Woolf.

Then there's the elegant hyphen — which is under assault as most modern keyboards ask you to hold down the 'alt' key or, as with my laptop, the 'alt' and 'fn' keys while entering 0, 1, 5, 1. (Now there's commitment to the cause for you!)

Mustn't forget the colon: it pushes you on into the sentence with a great big shove in the back. It is a great promiser of things to come; a top-hatted impresario who draws back the curtain and beckons you in to the wonders that lie beyond.

I do feel sorry for the humble and overworked comma, though. The comma, along with the simple full stop, is increasingly asked to do the work of the semi-colon, dash and colon. In America, it is even made to take on roles for which it is not needed: the last comma in a list is not needed. 'And' does that job just fine on its own.

So, you see, punctuation is beautiful; or can be: an art that oils the space between words; that dictates rhythm so that the line between writing on a page and music becomes blurred.

You'll have to excuse me: I am becoming quite emotional.