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caesural run-on

Sound
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

A phrase that begins before a caesura (mid-line pause) and continues past it into the next metrical segment, creating syntactic momentum and tension.

Detailed Definition
Caesural run-on describes the syntactic overflow that bridges the two halves of a line divided by a caesura, eliminating the expected pause and creating internal enjambment; this technique merges hemistichs into a continuous phrase, enhancing fluidity and urgency, as seen in Milton’s blank verse where thought overrides metrical segmentation for rhetorical power.
Example
Example in poetry:
Caesural run-on merges caesura with enjambment across stanzas: “I thought || / the sky would break— / but it held || / its breath” (hypothetical); in Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck,” caesural run-on mirrors psychological fragmentation; the technique sustains tension across stanza breaks; it appears in confessional poetry to convey unresolved emotion; caesural run-on challenges stanzaic containment
Additional Notes
A strong rhythmic effect where the internal pause (caesura) is positioned near the end of a line and the syntax aggressively continues into the next, making the line end feel rushed and the pause itself feel like a dramatic jump to the next line; Related to Cadential overflow.
Also Known As
run-on pause flowing break extended caesura Caesural enjambment
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