A Stone Urn With Flowers In It

People like to pretend they hate exclamation points and semi-colons. MRS. DALLOWAY is full of both! "Then came the most exquisite moment of her whole life passing a stone urn with flowers in it. Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips. The whole world might have turned upside down!" Those are great semi-colons and a beautiful exclamation point and a wonderful absent comma in the first sentence and perfect use of a "cliché" in the last one and certainly some graduate workshop would have scolded her for using the word "whole" twice in such quick succession. (See also.)