A caesura, also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begins. It may be expressed by a comma (, ), a tick, or two lines, either slashed or upright.

What is a caesura example?

A caesura will usually occur in the middle of a line of poetry. This caesura is called a medial caesura. For example, in the children's verse, 'Sing a Song of Sixpence,' the caesura occurs in the middle of each line: 'Sing a song of sixpence, // a pocket full of rye.

What does caesura represent?

In music, a caesura denotes a brief, silent pause, during which metrical time is not counted. Similar to a silent fermata, caesurae are located between notes or measures (before or over bar lines), rather than on notes or rests (as with a fermata).