Final answer:
In poetry, a caesura is a rhythmic pause in a line often indicated by punctuation, though the example given, "Sir Gawain was as quiet as a stone," does not inherently display a caesura without such punctuation. Varying uses of punctuation and capitalization were utilized by poets like Wheatley and Yeats to affect rhythm, while Pope's heroic couplets utilized end-stopped lines, and a lack of punctuation can result in enjambment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The caesura is a pause or break in a line of poetry, which can be seen in writings of the past where poets have used punctuation to indicate a pause. In the example provided, "Sir Gawain was as quiet as a stone," if written by the creator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the presence of a caesura would depend on the placement of punctuation marks which create a pause in the rhythm of the poem. However, this analogy is not inherently a caesura without proper punctuation that would signify a pause.
In the manuscripts by poets like Wheatley and Yeats, distinct styles are observed where Wheatley used several capitalized words and phrases and retained many of the diacritical marks, while Yeats utilized punctuation and line beginnings to control rhythm and draw attention.
The use of heroic couplets in Pope's An Essay on Criticism exemplifies end-stopped lines with a pause at the end of each line, crafted through the use of punctuation. In contrast, the lack of punctuation can lead to enjambment, where the reader moves from one line to the next without pausing, influencing the poem's rhythm and how it is read.