U | U |U | U | U _| U
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
U | U | U | U | U
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious.
—Shakespeare.
+112. Cesura.+—Besides the pauses caused by rests or silences there is the cesural pause which needs to be considered in reading verse. A cesura is a pause determined by the sense. It coincides with some break in the sense. It is found in different parts of the verse and may be entirely lacking. Its observance does not noticeably interfere with the rhythm. In the following selection it is marked thus: ||.
U | U | U | U |
The sun came up || upon the left,
U| U | U _ |
Out of the sea || came he;
U | U | U | U |
And he shone bright, || and on the right
U | U | U _ |
Went down || into the sea
—Coleridge.
Lives of great men || all remind us
We can make our lives || sublime,
And, departing, || leave behind us,
Footprints || on the sands of time.