Question about a semicolon of punctuation marks Hi, everyone. As long as I know, the meaning of a semicolon is "and plus comma." In a sentece written by Helen Keller in her essay, Optimism, there is difficult one, which I could interpret with my understanding of a semicolon. The sentence is that: "My life was without past or future; death, the pessimist would say, 'a consummation devoutly to be wished.'" I understand this sentence like "My life was without past of future, and it is death, if the pessimist experienced my life, he would describe it as 'a consummation devoutly to be wished.'" Do I understand correctly? Or, does it have different meaning with my interpretation. I sincerely appreciate your help.