Metre (poetry) - Caesurae

Caesurae

Another component of a verse's metre are the caesurae (literally, cuts), which are not pauses but compulsory word boundaries which occur after a particular syllabic position in every line of a poem. In Latin and Greek poetry, a caesura is a break within a foot caused by the end of a word.

For example, in the verse below, each odd line has a caesura (shown by a slash /) after the fourth syllable (daily, her, won'dring, mother) while each even line is without a caesura:

Daily, daily, / sing to Mary,

Sing my soul her praises due:

All her feasts, her / actions honour,

With the heart's devotion true.

Now in wond'ring / contemplation,

Be her majesty confess'd;

Call her Mother / call her Virgin,

Happy Mother, Virgin blest.

A caesura would split the word "devotion" in the fourth line or the word "majesty" in the sixth line.