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{{Short description|Pause or break in poetry or music}}
{{for|the Helios album|Caesura (album)}}
{{distinguish|seizure}}
[[image:Music-caesura.svg|thumb|300px|An example of a caesura in modern western [[music notation]]]]
{{See Also|alliterative verse}}
A '''caesura''' ({{IPAc-en|s|ɪ|ˈ|zj|ʊər|ə}}, {{abbr|pl|plural}}. '''caesuras''' or '''caesurae'''; [[Latin]] for "[[cutting]]"), also written '''cæsura''' and '''cesura''', is a [[Metre (poetry)|metrical]] pause or break in a [[Verse (poetry)|verse]] where one phrase ends and another phrase begins. It may be expressed by a [[comma]] (''','''), a [[Check mark|tick]] ('''✓'''), or two lines, either slashed ('''//''') or upright ('''||'''). In time value, this break may vary between the slightest perception of silence all the way up to a full [[Pausa|pause]].<ref>Spreadbury, Daniel; Eastwood, Michael; Finn, Ben; and Finn, Jonathan (March 2008). "Sibelius 5 Reference", p.150. Edition 5.2. "The comma also indicates a short silence on instruments like the piano, which can't literally breath."</ref>

==Poetry==

In classical Greek and Latin poetry a caesura is the juncture where one word ends and the following word begins within a foot. In contrast, a word juncture at the end of a [[foot (prosody)|foot]] is called a [[Diaeresis (prosody)|diaeresis]]. Some caesurae are expected and represent a point of articulation between two phrases or clauses. All other caesurae are only potentially places of articulation. The opposite of an obligatory caesura is a bridge where word juncture is not permitted.

In modern European poetry, a caesura is defined as a natural phrase end, especially when occurring in the middle of a line. A {{nowrap|'''masculine caesura'''}} follows a [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed]] [[syllable]] while a {{nowrap|'''feminine caesura'''}} follows an unstressed syllable. A caesura is also described by its position in a line of poetry: a caesura close to the beginning of a line is called an ''initial'' caesura, one in the middle of a line is ''medial'', and one near the end of a line is ''terminal.'' Initial and terminal caesurae are rare in formal, [[Romance (heroic literature)|Romance]], and [[Neoclassical verse]], which prefer medial caesurae.

===Mark===
{{Main|caesura mark}}
In verse [[scansion]], the modern '''caesura mark''' is a double [[vertical bar]] ⟨{{!}}{{!}}⟩ or ⟨<math>\|</math>⟩, a variant of the single-bar ''{{lang|la|virgula}}'' ("twig") used as a caesura mark in medieval manuscripts.<ref name=verg>{{citation |title=Oxford English Dictionary, ''1st ed.'' |contribution=virgule, ''n.'' |date=1917 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press }}.</ref> The same mark separately developed as the [[Slash (punctuation)|virgule]], the single slash used to mark line breaks in poetry.<ref name=verg/>

===Examples===

====Homer====
Caesurae were widely used in [[Greek poetry]]. For example, in the opening line of the ''[[Iliad]]'':

:{{lang|grc|μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ,}} || {{lang|grc|Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος}}
:{{grc-transl|μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ,}} || {{grc-transl|Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος}}

:("Sing the rage, o goddess, || of Achilles, the son of Peleus.")

This line includes a masculine caesura after θεὰ, a natural break that separates the line into two logical parts. Homeric lines more commonly employ feminine caesurae; this preference is observed to an even higher degree among the Alexandrian poets.<ref>{{cite book|last1=West|first1=M.L.|title=Greek Metre|date=1982|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|pages=38; 98; 152}}</ref> An example of a feminine caesura is the opening line of the ''[[Odyssey]]'':

:{{lang|grc|ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα,}} || {{lang|grc|πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ}}
:{{grc-transl|ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα,}} || {{grc-transl|πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ}}

:("Tell me, [[Muses|Muse]], of the man || of many wiles, who very much (wandered)")

Occasionally (about 1 line in 100) the caesura comes in the 4th foot only.<ref>Maas, P. (1962) ''Greek Metre'' (tr. Lloyd-Jones), p. 60.</ref>

====Latin====
Caesurae were widely used in [[Latin poetry]], for example, in the opening line of [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'':

:Arma virumque cano || Troiae qui primus ab oris

:(Of arms and the man, I sing. || Who first from the shores of Troy...)

This line uses caesura in the medial position. In dactylic hexameter, a caesura occurs any time the ending of a word does not coincide with the beginning or the end of a metrical foot; in modern [[Prosody_(linguistics)|prosody]], however, it is only called one when the ending also coincides with an audible pause in the line.

The ancient [[elegiac couplet]] form of the Greeks and Romans contained a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of [[pentameter]]. The pentameter often displayed a clearer caesura, as in this example from [[Propertius]]:

:Cynthia prima fuit; || Cynthia finis erit.

:(Cynthia was the first; Cynthia will be the last)

====Old English====
In [[Old English]], the caesura has come to represent a pronounced pause in order to emphasize lines in Old English poetry that would otherwise be considered to be a droning, monotonous line.<ref>Bergman, Bennet. "Caesura." LitCharts LLC, May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2018. https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/caesura.</ref> This makes the caesura arguably more important to the [[Old English language|Old English]] [[Old English poetry|verse]] than it was to Latin or Greek poetry. In Latin or Greek poetry, the caesura could be suppressed for effect in any line. In the [[alliterative verse]] that is shared by most of the oldest [[Germanic language]]s, the caesura is an ever-present and necessary part of the verse form itself. The opening line of ''[[Beowulf]]'' reads:

:Hwæt! We Gardena || in gear-dagum,
:þeodcyninga, || þrym gefrunon,
:hu ða æþelingas || ellen fremedon.

:(Behold! The Spear-Danes in days gone by,)
:(and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness,)
:(We have heard of these princes' heroic campaigns.)

The basic form is [[accentual verse]], with four stresses per line separated by a caesura. Old English poetry added alliteration and other devices to this basic pattern.

====Middle English====
[[William Langland]]'s ''[[Piers Ploughman]]'':

:I loked on my left half || as þe lady me taughte
:And was war of a woman || worþeli ycloþed.

:(I looked on my left half / as the lady me taught)
:(and was aware of a woman / worthily clothed.)

==== South and Southeast Asia ====
In the [[Brahmic script]]s of [[South Asia|South]] and [[Southeast Asia]] (e.g. [[Devanagari]]), a punctuation mark called the [[danda]] is used to mark subdivisions in text, with single and double variants variously marking phrases, sentences, semi-verses, verses, or larger sections.<ref>{{cite web | title=UTN #33: Dandas and More Dandas | website=Index | date=13 August 2024 | url=https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn33/ | access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref>

An example of the use of danda as caesurae in [[Indian poetry]] is in the "dohas" or couplet poems of [[Kabir|Sant Kabir Das]], a 15th-century poet who was central to the [[Bhakti movement]] in [[Hinduism]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gyanipandit.com/kabir-das-biography-in-hindi/|title=History of Sant Kabirdas|date=12 April 2021 }}</ref> Kabir employs the danda to mark semi-verse and verse, as in the following couplet:
: कस्तूरी कुंडल बसे मृग ढूँढत बन माहि ।  
: ज्यों घट घट में राम हैं दुनिया देखत नाहि ।।
: Kastūrī kuṃḍala base, mṛga ḍhūm̐ḍhata bana māhi ।
: Jyo ghaṭa ghaṭa rāma hai, duniyā dekhe nāhī ।।
: (Musk lies in the musk deer’s own nave ।)
: (But roam in the forest he does – it to seek ।।)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zocalopoets.com/2012/04/11/kabir-of-the-musk-deer-15th-century-hindi-poems/|title=Kabirdas Dohavali|date=11 April 2012 }}</ref>

====Polish====
Caesura is very important in Polish syllabic verse (as in [[French alexandrine]]).<ref>See Summary [in:] Lucylla Pszczołowska, ''Wiersz polski. Zarys historyczny'', Wrocław 1997, p. 398.</ref> Every line longer than eight syllables is divided into two half-lines.<ref>Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, ''Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim'', Kraków 2003, p. 14 (In Polish).</ref> Lines composed of the same number of syllables with division in different place are considered to be completely different metrical patterns. For example, Polish alexandrine (13) is almost always divided 7+6. It has been very common in Polish poetry for last five centuries. But the metre 13(8+5) occurs only rarely and 13(6+7) can be hardly found. In Polish [[accentual-syllabic verse]] caesura is not so important but iambic tetrametre (very popular today) is usually 9(5+4).<ref>Lucylla Pszczołowska, o.c., p. 401.</ref> Caesura in Polish syllabic verse is almost always feminine, while in accentual-syllabic (especially iambic) verse it is often masculine: sSsSsSsS//sSsSsSsSs. There are also metrical patterns with two or three caesuras, for example 18[9(5+4)+9(5+4)].<ref>Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, o.c., p. 73-74.</ref>

====Other examples====
Caesurae can occur in later forms of verse, where they are usually optional. The so-called [[ballad]] meter, or the [[common meter]] of the hymnodists (see also [[hymn]]), is usually thought of as a line of [[iambic tetrameter]] followed by a line of [[trimeter]], but it can also be considered a line of [[heptameter]] with a fixed caesura at the fourth foot.

Considering the break as a caesura in these verse forms, rather than a beginning of a new line, explains how sometimes multiple caesurae can be found in this verse form (from the [[ballad]], [[Tom o' Bedlam]]):

:From the hag and hungry goblin || that into rags would rend ye,
:And the spirits that stand || by the naked man || in the Book of Moons, defend ye!

In later and freer verse forms, the caesura is optional. It can, however, be used for rhetorical effect, as in [[Alexander Pope]]'s line:

:To err is human; || to forgive, divine.

== Music ==
In music, a caesura denotes a brief, [[rest (music)|silent pause]], during which [[meter (music)|metrical time]] is not [[counting (music)|counted]]. Similar to a silent [[fermata]], caesurae are located between notes or [[bar (music)|measures]] (before or over [[bar (music)|bar lines]]), rather than on notes or rests (as with a fermata). A fermata may be placed over a caesura to indicate a longer pause.

In [[musical notation]], a caesura is marked by double oblique lines, similar to a pair of [[slash mark|slashes]] {{angle brackets|//}}. The symbol is popularly called "tram-lines" in the UK and "railroad tracks" or "train tracks" in the US. The symbol is encoded in Unicode as {{unichar2|𝄓}}.

The length of a caesura where notated is at the discretion of the musician.

== See also ==
{{wiktionary}}

*[[Anacrusis]]
*[[Danda]]
*[[Ellipsis]]
*[[Kireji]]
*[[Line break (poetry)|Line break]]
*[[Meter (poetry)]]
*[[Old English poetry]]
*[[Prosody (Latin)]]
*[[Regulated verse]]
*[[Saturnian (poetry)]]
*[[Tacet]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Musical notation}}

[[Category:Latin words and phrases]]
[[Category:Poetic rhythm]]
[[Category:Musical notation]]