‘Aire that once was breath’

In his Defence of Poesie (c.1579) Sidney discusses the caesura or ‘breathing place’ as one of the structures of English poetry, a moment of poetic control over form that contributes to the composition as an imitation of life. However, the nature of breath is inherently ephemeral and thus makes the ‘breathing place’ a site of instability and the caesura a mark that can expand beyond its limits and embody the reader. For Greville, the caesura becomes more than a poetic device but a space in which to explore grief. There is a tangible difference in the way Greville uses caesurae and breathing places in Caelica (pub. 1633) after Sidney’s death, and in ‘Silence augmenteth grief’ (pub. 1593) as the breathing place becomes a space in which to express grief.