poem with dashes exclamation points or enjambment

The break would be between “sing the rage” and “of Peleus’ son Achilles.” Though there is not a natural break there in English, the translator attempted to keep the sense of the caesura by creating other breaks such as between “Rage” and “Goddess,” and “Goddess” and “sing.” Example #2Īrms and the man I sing, who, forced by fateĮxpelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore. The medial caesura is evident here just from looking at the symbols, even if you don’t read Greek. The opening line of the entire epic, translated above as “Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles” was originally written μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ || Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος. Homer used many examples of caesura in his epic The Iliad. Great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,Īnd the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.īegin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,Īgamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles. Hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, Murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, Examples of Caesura in Literature Example #1 Thus, when contemporary poets make their verse resemble natural speech it is common to use caesurae. However, most people add natural and frequent breaks in the middle of lines when speaking normally. There may not be quite as many rules regarding its usage now. While caesurae was particularly important in the poetic works of ancient cultures, there are many caesura examples in contemporary poetry as well. Old English poetry also included examples of caesura in almost every line, as this type of poetry did not generally involve rhyme or meter the preferred methods of creating euphony and poetic unity were through consonance and medial caesurae. Caesurae help to highlight the meter in a line of verse. Caesura examples were very common in Ancient Greek and Ancient Latin poetry, which both emphasized the importance of meter. A reader could easily see that an audible pause was called for in a line of poetry with the double pipes.

Originally, the double pipes were used for the purpose of scansion, which is to say determining the metrical character of a line of verse.

Poem with dashes exclamation points or enjambment