caesura

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The Word of the Day for June 4 is:

caesura   \sih-ZYUR-uh\   noun
     1 : a break in the flow of sound usually in the middle of a line of verse
    *2 : break, interruption 
     3 : a pause marking a rhythmic point of division in a melody

Example sentence:
     "Without so much as the caesura of a drawn breath I was first shouting in 
joy, then screaming in shock." (E.L. Doctorow, _World's Fair_)

Did you know?
     Caesuras (or caesurae) are those slight pauses one makes as one reads 
verse. While it may seem that their most obvious role is to emphasize the 
metrical construction of the verse, more often we need these little stops 
(which may be, but are not necessarily, set off by punctuation) to introduce 
the cadence and phrasing of natural speech into the metrical scheme. The word 
"caesura," borrowed from Late Latin, is ultimately from Latin "caedere" meaning 
"to cut." Nearly as old as the 450-year-old poetry senses is the general 
meaning "a break or interruption."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. 





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