Colon or comma?
Hi, everyone.
If I want to write this line of a peom in the form of a sentence, which sentence of the two will be correct and why?
This is the way the world ends: not with a bang but a whimper.
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.(is the prepositional phrase(not with...) an appositive one?)
Thanks!
Top answer
In the original poem, "this" refers to the previous stanza, which ended the poem with a whimper. The stanza your quotation appears in is a sort of retrospective coda. You can't really make a sentence out of the two lines because "not with a bang but a whimper" stands alone in the poem.
- In the original poem, "this" refers to the previous stanza, which ended the poem with a whimper.
- The stanza your quotation appears in is a sort of retrospective coda.
- You can't really make a sentence out of the two lines because "not with a bang but a whimper" stands alone in the poem.
- But if you must, use a comma; the colon is too intrusive.
- The phrase "not with a bang but a whimper" is not appositive, it is the antecedent of "this" (but it was not that in the poem).
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In the original poem, "this" refers to the previous stanza, which ended the poem with a whimper. The stanza your quotation appears in is a sort of retrospective coda. You can't really make a sentence out of the two lines because "not with a bang but a whimper" stands alone in the poem. But if you must, use a comma; the colon is too intrusive. The phrase "not with a bang but a whimper" is not
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