0

Can someone help me punctuate this line? It is poetry, which may not always follow the common rules of punctuation...

I asked myself is there such a place in the deepest part of the soul
where noone has dared to linger where deepest thoughts are kept below

Andrew Leach
  • 101,901
gayle
  • 1
  • 1
    If this were an ordinary sentence, you'd put a colon after "myself" and a question mark at the end of the sentence. This is poetry, so you can depart from this punctuation if you want to. Why do you want to? – Peter Shor Jun 07 '21 at 21:26
  • 1
    If I wanted a poetic effect, I could place the question mark early: "I asked myself, is there such a place? In the deepest part of the soul where noone has dared to linger, where deepest thoughts are kept below." You have soul and below as near rhymes. – Yosef Baskin Jun 07 '21 at 21:34
  • 2
    You should split up noone into no one. – Robusto Jun 07 '21 at 21:52
  • Thank you for the ideas. I guess I'm wondering if it would be separated by three different questions, each having their own question marks, or by two and the semicolon being an afterthought of the second question? In other words, perhaps something like this... I asked myself "is there such a place in the deepest part of the soul? Where no one has dared to linger; where deepest thoughts are kept below?" Also, would I use quotes since I'm asking myself? This is a tricky one because two thirds of this paragraph is all part of the first question. – gayle Jun 07 '21 at 23:03
  • @gayle Please clarify your question by editing the question (there's an [edit] link below it) rather than using comments, which are ephemeral. Thank you. – Andrew Leach Jun 08 '21 at 06:49
  • The grammar is non-standard (I asked myself is there such a place in ...), so questions about correct punctuation seem infelicitous. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 08 '21 at 15:35

1 Answers1

-1

There wouldn't be a question mark. If you added quotes however, it would be...

I asked myself, "is there such a place in the deepest part of the soul where noone has dared to linger and where deepest thoughts are kept below?"

I'd ommit "below".

JJrussel
  • 239
  • The grammar is non-standard (I asked myself is there such a place in ...), so questions about correct punctuation seem infelicitous. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 08 '21 at 15:34
  • Punctuation rules for internal monologues are more flexible than for speech, so quotation marks aren't required: see this question https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/14890/use-quotation-marks-for-internal-monologue – Stuart F Nov 05 '21 at 14:20