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Three-beat pause

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 mid-line pause occurring after the third metrical foot, creating rhythmic division in longer verse lines.

Detailed Definition
Three-beat pause refers to a caesura or silence within a line equivalent to three metrical beats, creating dramatic emphasis or rhythmic contrast; this extended break may signal emotional rupture, rhetorical shift, or performative silence in oral delivery.
Example
Example in poetry:
Three-beat pause appears in Anglo-Saxon caesura: “Hwæt! We Gardena / in geardagum”; In Milton’s “Paradise Lost”: “Rocks, caves, lakes, / fens, bogs, dens”; In Whitman’s long lines, mid-line breaks for breath; In contemporary poet C.D. Wright, documentary pauses; In Seamus Heaney’s “Punishment,” caesura as moral hesitation.
Additional Notes
A three-beat pause is a metrical pause equivalent to three beats; used for dramatic effect or emphasis.
Also Known As
Triple-beat caesura Three-stress pause Trimeter break Three-beat interruption Dactylic interruption
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