Are there specific rules about caesura that restrict us where we can place them?
A caesura is a slight pause that's important in poetry, because for example alexandrines require a caesura in the middle.
But the question is where can we put them. I know that we tend to put them in places where there's a punctuation mark like a comma, but there are also authors who put them almost anywhere.
Such seem to be the case with this verse:
Ye sacred Bards, that to ¦ your harps' melodious strings
The caesura is placed between to and your, which breaks the natural flow of the verse. So I was wondering if I could place a caesura basically anywhere as long as it's not in the middle of a word.
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1 answer
Put your pauses wherever you wish but know that they will tell the reader how to read it.
Poetry is meant to be read aloud. Or at least imagined so in the mind. Tell your reader how and where to pause.
- A comma.
- A final punctuating mark (period, exclamation mark, question mark).
- A line break.
- A stanza break.
These are the primary methods by which a poet indicates a pause, in order of length.
The line you quote comes from Michael Drayton's poem Poly-Olbion, "a topographical poem describing England and Wales," first published in 1612. He wrote it in alexandrine couplets, which explains the odd punctuation mark in the middle that serves as a pause.
Whereas the French alexandrine is syllabic, the English is accentual-syllabic; and the central caesura (a defining feature of the French) is not always rigidly preserved in English...The strict English alexandrine may be exemplified by a passage from Poly-Olbion, which features a rare caesural enjambment (symbolized ¦) in the first line:
Ye sacred Bards, that to ¦ your harps' melodious strings
When others quote this stanza, they inevitably leave out the comma-like ¦. Why? Because that strict rhythm of alexandrine isn't necessary anywhere else. Like you say, it breaks the natural flow of the verse.
For Drayton, the rule wasn't that he couldn't put the caesura where he wanted to, but that he felt himself forced to add in a caesura where it otherwise wouldn't belong. And in a particularly awkward way to boot.
So pause where you want the reader to breathe.
If you choose a strict style and wish to adhere to it exactly, that's your choice, just know that sometimes it makes the reader do things you might not want.
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