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Caesura
Feminine vs. Masculine Caesur
Caesurae
ae
DEFINITION In poetry that uses meter, each caesura is defined as "masculine" or
What is a caesura? Here’s a quick and simple definition: "feminine" depending on whether the pause comes after a stressed or
unstressed syllable. A feminine caesura follows an unstressed
A caesura is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, syllable, as in:
usually marked by some form of punctuation such as a
period, comma, ellipsis, or dash. A caesura doesn't have to The woods are lovely, || dark and deep
be placed in the exact middle of a line of poetry. It can be
A masculine caesura, on the other hand, is one that follows a stressed
placed anywhere after the first word and before the last word
syllable, as in:
of a line. In the following line from the prologue of Romeo
and Juliet, the comma after "Verona" marks a caesura: "In
My words fly up, || my thoughts remain below
fair Verona, where we lay our scene."
Generally speaking, feminine caesura often are a bit shorter and feel
Some additional key details about caesuras:
"softer." Masculine ceasura often feel harder and more abrupt.
• The plural of caesura is caesurae.
• A line of poetry can contain multiple caesurae. Initial, Medial, and T
Terminal
erminal Caesur
Caesuraa
Instances of caesura are also sometimes referred to based on where
Ho
Howw tto
o Pr
Pronounc
onouncee Caesur
Caesuraa they occur in the line.

Here's how to pronounce caesura: sez-yyoo

oo-ra • Initial ccaesur
aesuraa oc
occur
curss tto
owar
ardd the be
beginning
ginning of a line, such as the
comma in "To be, or not to be — that is the question..."
Caesur
Caesuraa in Dep
Depth
th • Medial ccaesur
aesuraa oc
occur
curss in the middle of a line, such as the dash in
Caesurae have been used in poetry since the time of the ancient "To be, or not to be — that is the question..."
Greeks and Romans—though, back then, the term was even more • Terminal ccaesur
aesuraa oc
occur
curss ne
near
ar the end of a line, such as the dash
specific and referred to pauses that actually threw off the meter of a in the line "Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!"
line of poetry. The Romans and Greeks, however, wrote their poetry
using much more rigid conventions of meter than are used in English
verse, and the word caesura has long since come to mean simply a EX
EXAMPLES
AMPLES
pause in the middle of a line, such as:

To be, or not to be — that is the question... Caesurae in Beo

Caesurae Beowulf
wulf
Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving poems written in Old English.
In this famous line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the dash in the Poems written in Old English often used lots of caesura, and Seamus
middle of the line represents a pronounced pause. Read the line Heaney's modern English translation of Beowulf does an excellent job
aloud yourself and you will hear the pause. The comma after "To be" of preserving the original text's prolific use of caesurae. This example
is another example of caesura in this line, though the pause is shows that, although the use of caesurae can create an unusual or
arguably a briefer one. jarring rhythm that might be perceived by some as more "modern," it
has actually been in use for many centuries.
Ho
HowwP
Poe
oetts Mark Caesur
Caesuraa
A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbour,
When analyzing poetry, poets and scholars sometimes mark
Ice-clad, || outbound, || a craft for a prince.
instances of caesura by using a symbol called a "double pipe," which
They stretched their beloved lord in his boat,
looks like this: ||. Here's an example of how the double pipe is used to
Laid out by the mast, || amidships,
mark caesura in context:
The great ring-giver. || Far-fetched treasures
To be, || or not to be — || that is the question... Were piled upon him, || and precious gear.
I never heard before of a ship so well furbished
As you can see, from this example, it is possible to have multiple With battle tackle, || bladed weapons
caesurae in a single line of poetry. And coats of mail. || The massed treasure

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Was loaded on top of him: || it would travel far receive attention. Since line breaks in poetry tend to serve as a
On out into the ocean’s sway. natural pause regardless of whether the lines are end-stopped with
punctuation, the rhythm of poems with lines of equal length can
Both of the caesurae in the second line are feminine, because each become somewhat monotonous and unvaried without the use of
pause follows an unstressed syllable: Ice-clad, || outbound, || a craft caesurae to create pauses in the middle of lines. The use of caesurae
for a prince. also allows writers to formulate their thoughts and images using
more complex sentence structures with different clauses and a freer
Caesur
Caesuraa in Shak
Shakespe
espear
are'
e'ss ""Sonne
Sonnett 42" use of punctuation than is possible without the use of caesurae.
This excerpt from Sonnet 42 by Shakespeare contains an example of
caesura in each line except the fourth.
OTHER RESOURCES
If I lose thee, || my loss is my love's gain,
• The Wikipedia Page on Caesura: A somewhat technical
And losing her, || my friend hath found that loss,
explanation, which also discusses how caesura are used in poetry
Both find each other, || and I lose both twain,
written in different languages.
And both for my sake lay on me this cross,
• The dictionary definition of Caesura: A basic definition that
But here's the joy, || my friend and I are one,
includes a bit on the etymology of caesura (it comes from the
Sweet flattery, || then she loves but me alone.
Latin word "cut").

Caesur
Caesuraa in A
Ashber
shbery'
y'ss "Our YYouth"
outh"
This stanza from John Ashbery's poem "Our Youth" gives a more HO
HOWWT
TO
O CITE
modern example of caesura using three different types of
punctuation: ellipsis in the first two lines, a period in the third, and ML
MLAA
finally a comma in the fourth.
Bergman, Bennet. "Caesura." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 5 May 2017.
Blue hampers . . . || Explosions, Web. 31 Aug 2017.
Ice . . . || The ridiculous
Vases of porphyry. || All that our youth Chic
Chicag
ago
o Manual
Can't use, || that it was created for. Bergman, Bennet. "Caesura." LitCharts LLC, May 5, 2017. Retrieved
August 31, 2017. http://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-
terms/caesura.
WHY WRITER
WRITERSSU
USE
SE IT
Writers use caesurae to create variation in the rhythm of a poem, or to
emphasize words in the middle of lines that might not otherwise

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