epic caesura
Quick Summary
In prosody, a caesura is a pause within a poetic line that disrupts the regular meter. It can be marked by punctuation or occur naturally within the phrasing, often mimicking speech patterns.1
In ancient Germanic and Old English poetry, the caesura was a formal device that divided each line into two halves, aiding in alliteration.1
A specific type is the epic caesura, which is a feminine caesura. This occurs when a pause follows an extra unstressed syllable within an iambic meter, creating a longer-than-usual pause. This is exemplified in Shakespeare's Macbeth. This contrasts with a lyric caesura, which follows a normally required unstressed syllable.21
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