an audible pause internal to a line, usually in the middle. (An audible pause at the end of a line is called an end-stop.) The French alexandrine, Anglo-Saxon alliterative meter, and Latin dactylic hexameter are all verse forms that call for a caesura. In later and freer verse forms, the caesura is optional. It can, however, be used for rhetorical effect, as in Alexander Pope's line: In ‘Tate’s Avenue’Heaney supplies the reader with two good examples of caesura in the first lines of the poem. Here is the first stanza:

Initial caesura occurs toward the beginning of a line, such as the comma in "To be, or not to be — that is the question..." Hwæt! We Gardena Ashley Qilavaq-Savard is an Inuk writer, artist, and emerging filmmaker born and raised in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She writes poetry about decolonizing narratives, healing from intergenerational trauma, and love of the land and culture. Her first collection of poetry, Where the Sea Kunik the Land explores grief, colonization, and finding identity in between it all. No matter how you feel about poetry, if you’re an upper elementary teacher, you probably have to teach it at some point during the year. Poetry is included in most reading curriculums, and almost every standardized reading test has at least a few poems. Even if your students aren’t tested on poetry, there are many reasons to teach it. Just think about the amount figurative language used in poetry, and you’ll understand how learning to read and write poetry can improve comprehension of other types of text, too. I loked on my left half

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that into rags would rend ye, And the spirits that stand in the Book of Moons, defend ye! A lyric caesura follows a syllable that the line naturally requires to be unstressed. An example is from Housman’s The Welsh Marshes: “they cease not fighting ∥ east and west”

A feminine caesural pause is one of two types of caesura that poets can use in their writing. It appears after an un-stressed/short syllable in a line of verse. It is softer and less jarring than the masculine caesural pause discussed below. Begin walking again and repeat this process when the next thing calls out to you. Do this as long as it holds your interest. Notice the effect this practice has on you. Perhaps a deeper sense of connection with the “ordinary” things of the world will arise, or a sense of calm affection, or the spaciousness, appreciation, and gratitude that comes from freely giving your attention to things typically overlooked. You may also notice the difference between walking and looking and stopping and looking, and between those moments of bright attention and our habitual way of being lost in thoughts. July 26, 2023 Cross-Pollinations event will feature Anna Quon (a middle-aged, mixed race and Mad poet and novelist) and Dr. Sarah Blanchette (Assistant Professor in English and Cultural Studies at Huron University College). This session will include a poetry reading by Anna Quon and a presentation by Dr. Blanchette—both on themes related to madness and race. You don’t need to learn how to create caesura because these “breaks” are a natural part of your speech patterns, and in extension, how you read and write poetry. You can definitely create artificial breaks, but there are no real techniques or rules for doing so; it just depends on why you’re using it.It is strange to stop just before the end of your sentence, therefore this type of caesura easily disrupts the flow of language. Events that are not open to the public (eg. closed University/College events, closed membership events)

A caesura becomes feminine when it occurs after an unstressed syllable. This creates a softer and less abrupt flow in the poem. See William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale as an example. Listen to the it here. Initial Caesrua: as the name suggests, an initial caesura appears near or at the beginning of a line of verse. There is a good example in Browning’s ‘Mother and Poet’above.

You can almost hear the speaker groan. Pausing helps emphasize how weary and restless the speaker is. You may even begin to wonder why the speaker is staying awake. Is she waiting for someone? You may spot an answer in the last two lines: Time passes, [pause]