Poetry Hacks

Exclamation Mark

What is it? A punctuation mark (!) that usually stands in for a full stop.

What effect does it usually have? Exclamation marks indicate rising volume or pitch; usually they involve a sense of comedy, extremes of emotion, or serve to emphasise a phrase. What else should I look out for? Disorder, a lack of control or composure often accompanies exclamation marks, so they tend to be found alongside irregular verse features; they also help to create a sense of climax in longer poems.

An example of how it works … ‘Wild Nights!’ by Emily Dickinson:

Wild Nights — Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury!

In this passionate lyric, the longing of the speaker is conveyed in a series of exclamations; the use of enjambment, dashes, and irregular verse also contribute to the impression that her desires are boiling over, too strong to be restrained.

Another example … ‘Ode to the West Wind’ by P. B. Shelley:

Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

The exclamations work together with the rapid monosyllables, and the interjection and asyndetic list in the first line, to help raise the emotions of this poem to fever pitch, whilst the poet is consumed by his vision of the West Wind's awesome power.

18