XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.language.latin
This is an oft-quoted passage from Joyce's [The Dead]
Gabriel's warm, trembling fingers tapped the cold pane of the window. How cool it must be outside! How pleasant it would be to walk
out alone, first along by the river and then through the park! The snow
would be lying on the branches of the trees and forming a bright cap on
the top of the Wellington Monument. How much more pleasant it would be
there than at the supper-table!
the 3 exclamation points (!!!) act, partially, as quotation marks.
The 1st sentence is a neutral description from God's eyes view.
The 2nd sentence is [How cool it must be outside!]
=== Gabriel's emphatic thought.
Have you seen another example fitting this pattern?
(with 3 exclamation points (!!!))
[short emphatic thought !]
[2nd, longer emphatic thought !]
(a more relaxed thought or description)
[3rd and final emphatic thought !]
if so, could you let me know?
My point it that... this 1st part [How cool it must be outside!]
acts like the [Kommen drei ...... in eine Bar.] in a German joke.
_____________________________
How pleasant it would be to walk out alone,
along by the river
------ if you look closely, you can see [Finnegans Wake] in it.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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