What is Caesura in Literature?
Caesurae are normal since the commencement of poetry. In old style poetry, a caesura happens at whatever point the closure of a word happens in a metrical foot. In current poetry, the term possibly applies when a discernible respite happens in the line of stanza. In Old English poetry, the caesura is utilized to underline an enunciated stop that happens in lines that would somehow be tedious and rambling. Here are a few instances of caesurae in poetry:
- The Aeneid by Virgil
Arma virumque cano || Troiae qui primus stomach muscle oris
(Of arms and the man, I sing. || Who first from the shores of Troy…)
- “An Essay on Criticism” by Alexander Pope
To blunder is human; || to pardon, divine.
- The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
It is for you we talk, || not for ourselves:
You are mishandled || and by some putter-on
That will be damn’d for’t; || would I knew the scalawag,
I would land-damn him. || Be she honor-flaw’d,
I have three girls; || the oldest is eleven
- The Iliad by Homer
Sing, o goddess || the fury of Achilles, the child of Peleus.
- “Ozymandias”: by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Who said—”Two tremendous and trunkless legs of stone
Remain in the desert … || Near them, || on the sand …
My name is Ozymandias, || King of Kings; ||
Look on my Works, || ye Mighty, || and despair!
Nothing alongside remains. || Round the rot …
- “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” by Emily Dickinson
I’m no one! || Who right?
Is it true that you are no one, as well?
At that point there’s a couple of us || – don’t tell!
They’d oust || – you know!
