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Temporal caesura

Meter
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 metrical pause inserted to evoke or mimic the subjective experience or passage of time within a poetic line.

Detailed Definition
A temporal caesura is a deliberate pause or break within a line of poetry that marks or manipulates the perception of time—through silence, punctuation, or syntactic interruption—thereby altering rhythm, emphasizing duration, or creating a moment of reflection within the poem’s temporal flow.
Example
Example in poetry:
Temporal caesura: In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Eliot inserts "And indeed there will be time" as a pause in time; Shakespeare’s sonnets often break time with "But!" or "Yet!"; Contemporary: "Wait—before the world ends" (Ada Limón); Caesura marks narrative or emotional time-stops in Claudia Rankine
Additional Notes
Pause occurring at specific temporal moment in performance. Not marked by punctuation but by timing. Related to musical rests. Study performance poetry for temporal control.
Also Known As
Time pause Temporal break Chronological caesura Duration stop Calendrical caesura
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