Can we vertically position a span within a paragraph

by Daniel Miller

HTML

<p>
This is a bunch of plain text with nothing special about it. I will type and type and type and type and type. The purpose of this text, for illustration purposes, is to consume a tremendous amount of screen real estate. With text. So we can see what happens when we add a span. So now, here's a span. <span data-pullquote="this is the special quote">this is the special quote</span>. The question now is - how can we vertically position the span - without relying on absolute positioning of the page or altering other containers? The preferred position would be vertically aligned with the top of paragraph.
</p>

CSS

span[data-pullquote]:before {
    content: attr(data-pullquote);
    display: block;
    float: right;
    width: 15em;
    margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em;
    padding: 0;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    line-height: 1.2em;
    font-style: italic;
    text-align: left;
    color: #468847;
}