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Caesural

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Describing verse that features or emphasizes caesuras—pauses within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation or natural speech rhythm.

Detailed Definition
Caesural describes a pause or break within a metrical line, typically marked by punctuation or syntactic shift, that creates rhythmic variation and emphasis; the caesura is crucial in classical hexameter (e.g., “Arma virumque // cano”) and English blank verse (e.g., Milton’s dramatic mid-line halts), allowing poets to modulate pace, highlight key words, and mimic natural speech rhythms.
Example
Example in poetry:
Caesural describes lines dominated by mid-line breaks: Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse is inherently caesural; Milton’s blank verse uses caesural emphasis for gravitas (“High on a throne || of royal state”); contemporary poets like Jorie Graham use caesural lines to fragment thought; caesural technique prioritizes oral performance over visual linearity; it appears in liturgical and incantatory traditions
Additional Notes
Adjective form: relating to or characterized by caesura. Technical grammatical term. Related: caesura, medial pause. Tip: "Caesural placement" describes where pauses fall within line.
Also Known As
Related to caesura pause-based break-oriented medial-stop connected
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