NEW

Yet again, the semicolon's shadowy side is facing the reader. The semicolon is not visible, except in times of melting snow and great droughts. The lighted side of the semicolon faces away from the reader, as if it were asleep. This means that the reading lamp, reader, and semicolon are almost in a straight line, with the semicolon in between the reading lamp and the reader. The semicolon that we see looks very dark, like a snuffed match head.

NEW (PROGRESSIVE)

"The whole period of night."

—Gerald Molloy, Geology and Revelation (1870)

WANING CRESCENT (PRESENT PERFECT)

"It looked almost like a semicolon, almost like an exclamation point, yet not altogether like either. It glowed eerily in the dim light."

—Joe Devine, Commas are Our Friends (1989)

WANING CRESCENT

The semicolon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by the reading lamp. The fraction of the semicolon's dot that is illuminated is decreasing, like a cut flower without a vase. The darkness grows like a gathering thunderstorm. This semicolon appears before the New Semicolon and after the Last Quarter Semicolon. The crescent will grow smaller and smaller every day, until the semicolon looks like the New Semicolon.

WANING CRESCENT (PROGRESSIVE)

"The period of moonlit and starlit nights continued."

—Ronald Mathias Lockley, Shearwaters (1942)

WANING CRESCENT (FUTURE)

"Space, semicolon, space."

—International Standard Bibliographic Description (2007)

LAST QUARTER (CONTINUOUS)

"Eventide — An indefinite period."

—Thomas B Neely, The Illustrative Lesson Notes (1894)

LAST QUARTER

One-half of the semicolon appears to be illuminated by the reading lamp. The fraction of the semicolon's dot that is illuminated is decreasing, like the sound of waves during low tide. This semicolon is sometimes called Third Quarter. The left half of the semicolon appears lighted, and the right side appears dark. During the time between the Full Semicolon and the Last Quarter Semicolon, the part of the semicolon that appears lighted gets smaller and smaller every day, like a healing wound. It will continue to shrink until the New Semicolon.

LAST QUARTER (PROGRESSIVE)

"The period of moonlight falls in the first part of the night."

—Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders (1948)

LAST QUARTER (FUTURE)

"As if to punctuate the point, divine shafts of moonlight stream down."

—Mark I. Pinsky, The Gospel According to Disney (2004)

WANING GIBBOUS (PRESENT PERFECT)

"The moonlight punctuating the wave crests."

—Maxine Masterfield, Painting the Spirit of Nature (1996)

WANING GIBBOUS

The semicolon appears to be more than one-half but not fully illuminated by the reading lamp. The fraction of the semicolon's dot that is illuminated is decreasing, like the small villages in the English countryside. This semicolon appears before the Last Quarter Semicolon and before the Full Semicolon. The amount of the semicolon that we can see will grow smaller and smaller every day, like a ball of string.

WANING GIBBOUS (PROGRESSIVE)

"You who punctuate night's fleeting hours."

—Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy (2001)