caesura

American  

[si-zhoor-uh, -zoor-uh, siz-yoor-uh] / sɪˈʒʊər ə, -ˈzʊər ə, sɪzˈyʊər ə /

noun

plural

caesuras, caesurae

1. Prosody. a break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line, as in know then thyself ‖ presume not God to scan.

2. Classical Prosody. a division made by the ending of a word within a foot, or sometimes at the end of a foot, especially in certain recognized places near the middle of a verse.

3. any break, pause, or interruption.

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caesura British  

/ sɪˈzjʊərə /

noun

1. Usual symbol: ||.  (in modern prosody) a pause, esp for sense, usually near the middle of a verse line

2. (in classical prosody) a break between words within a metrical foot, usually in the third or fourth foot of the line

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Other Word Forms

• caesural
  adjective
• caesuric
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of caesura

1550–60; < Latin, equivalent to caes ( us ) cut (past participle of caedere ) ( caed- cut + -tus past participle suffix) + -ūra -ure

Explanation

A caesura is a break in a conversation, a line of verse, or a song. Usually, a caesura means total silence, but not for long. A caesura is a pause, or an interruption. In musical notation, a caesura is a break in the music, which can be a good time for a trumpet player to catch his breath. A caesura is also a break in the middle of a line of poetry. It is sometimes marked by a question mark, exclamation point, or period, as in the Sylvia Plath poem “Mirror”: “I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers."

Example Sentences

This creates a medial caesura, splitting the line into two more or less equal halves, a technique famously employed a thousand years ago by the unknown poet who set “Beowulf” to the page.

From New York Times • Mar. 4, 2021

Alone on the sea for weeks, Fox has a moment of caesura in his own life, and he finds the experience both rewarding and frightening.

From Slate • Dec. 3, 2019

That is a semicolon from the heavens, you know, it’s like the most amazing caesura, to say these two things that are simultaneous and true.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 20, 2019

Here’s a terrible piece of evidence showing that caesura in Twitter threads can be powerful.

From The Verge • Aug. 3, 2017

Each verse contains 21 syllables, with a caesura after the 12th.

From A Study of Poetry by Perry, Bliss