Punctuation the marks hierarchically, in terms of weight". Cecil Hartley's poem identifies their relative values: <poem style=margin:4em;> The stop point out, with truth, the time of pause A sentence doth require at ev'ry clause. At ev'ry comma, stop while "one" you count; At semicolon, "two" is the amount; A colon doth require the time of "three"; The period "four", as learned men agree. </poem> The use of punctuation was not standardised until after the invention of printing. According to the 1885 edition of "The American Printer", the importance of punctuation was noted in various sayings by children such as: <poem style=margin:4em;>
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose appear at widely separated places in "Sacred Emily": Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose The sentence "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." was written by Gertrude Stein as part of the 1913 poem "Sacred Emily", which appeared in the 1922 book "Geography and Plays". In that poem, the first "Rose" is the name of a person. Stein later used variations on the sentence in other writings, and "A rose is a rose is a rose" is among her most famous quotations, often interpreted as meaning "things are what they are", a statement