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What Is Enjambment? Definition and
Examples
What Is Enjambment? Definition and Examples
How
Poets Break Lines, and Why
"Enjambment" describes a
sentence or clause that straddles lines of poetry.
by
Updated September 21, 2018
In poetry, enjambment
describes a clause or a sentence that continues from one line to the next
without a pause and without punctuation.
The term enjambment originates from
the French words jambe, meaning leg, and enjamber, meaning to
straddle or step over. By using enjambment, the poet can compose a
sentence that runs on for several lines or even straddles the entire poem
before reaching a full stop.
Did
You Know?
In poetry, enjambment creates
anticipation and invites readers to move to the next line. It can also be used
to emphasize key words or suggest double meanings.
Line
Breaks in Poetry
The line — its length and where it
breaks — is the most noticeable feature of poetry. Without line breaks, a poem
may resemble prose with text running all the way to the
margin. By breaking thoughts into lines, poets can convey ideas and feelings
that might be difficult to express in ordinary sentences.
Lineation — the process of dividing
text into poetic lines — is a skilled art. A poet may try many arrangements
before choosing where to end a line. The possibilities can seem endless. A prose poem doesn't have
line breaks at all. Most poems, however, have some combination of these
lineation patterns:
Each of these approaches creates a
different rhythm and tone. Enjambment tends to quicken the pace. The
interruptions arouse uncertainty and suspense, encouraging readers to move to
the next line. End-stopped and parsed lines suggest authority. Full stops at
the end of each line prompt readers to proceed slowly, contemplating each
statement.
Enjambment
Examples and Analysis
Enjambment Example 1: Broken sentences in "The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden
Shovel" by Gwendolyn Brooks.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We ...
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) became
known for writing spare poems about race and social justice. Through
deceptively simple language, "The Pool Players" gives voice to lost
and hopeless youth. The complete poem is only eight lines long, and every line
except the last is enjambed.
The broken sentences suggest
restless rebellion and also place extra emphasis on the pronoun "We."
There's an uneasy pause and an air of nervous anticipation: "We"
what? Readers are prompted to read on to complete the statement.
Enjambment is an especially powerful
tool in "The Pool Players" because the poem is, after all, about
broken lives. The fractured statements build to a shocking end stop: "We /
Die soon."
Enjambment Example 2: Double meanings in "Vernal Equinox” by Amy Lowell.
The scent of hyacinths, like a pale mist, lies
between me and my book;
And the South Wind, washing through the room, Makes the candles quiver. My nerves sting at a spatter of rain on the shutter, And I am uneasy with the thrusting of green shoots Outside, in the night.
Why are you not here to overpower me with your
tense and urgent love?
Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was an imagest who wanted to describe powerful emotions
through precise sensory details and the rhythms of ordinary language. Her poem
"Vernal Equinox" is rich with evocative images: the scent of
hyacinths, spattering rain, stinging nerves. The line lengths are irregular,
suggesting natural speech. Also, like most poets, Lowell used a variety of
lineation patterns. Three of the lines are enjambed while the others are end-stopped
or parsed.
In the first line, enjambment
creates a double meaning. The word "lies" conjures the idea that the
scent of the hyacinths is deceptive. The next line, however, reveals that the
word "lies" refers to the location of the scent: between the speaker
and her book.
The next enjambment appears in line
six. Once again, an unexpected break creates momentary confusion. Is
"shoots" a noun or a verb? Does the "thrusting of green"
actually shoot at someone? To understand what's happening, it's
necessary to read the next line.
The third enjambment occurs near the
end of the poem. Suspense builds in the line, "Why are you not here to
overpower me with your." Your what? Since the poem has been
describing hyacinths, the reader might expect the pronouns "you" and
"your" to reference the flowers. The next line, however, introduces a
sudden shift in meaning. The speaker is not addressing the flowers.
"Your" references the love of someone the speaker longs for.
Enjambment Example 3: Ambiguity and surprise in "By the road to the contagious hospital"
by William Carlos Williams.
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water ...
Like Amy Lowell, William Carlos
Williams (1883-1963) was an imagist who wanted to create visual snapshots of
ordinary life. "By the road to the contagious hospital" is from his
collection, Spring and All, which
combines prose sketches with fragmented poetry.
The poem opens with images of a
somber and perplexing landscape. The word "blue" in the second line
is ambiguous. At first it seems to refer to the "contagious"
hospital, but as the enjambed sentence continues, it's evident that the mottled
clouds (which astonishingly "surge") are blue.
The hospital is also ambiguous. Is
the building contagious? Or does the word "contagious" describe the
type of patient the hospital treats? What stands beyond the muddy fields —
the dried weeds or the patches of water?
Enjambed phrases hint at one
meaning, only to reveal a different meaning in the line below. As meanings
shift, the reader becomes part of the transition, discovering new
interpretations along the way. "By the road to the contagious
hospital" is a journey — through the countryside, through changing
seasons, and through altered perceptions.
William Carlos Williams believed
that poets could elevate ordinary life by writing colloquial speech into poetic
lines. Enjambment allowed him to focus on small details and reveal beauty or
pathos in ordinary objects. His famous poem "The Red Wheelbarrow"
is a single 16-word sentence broken into eight short lines. Another short poem,
"This Is Just to Say,"
was allegedly composed as routine note to his wife: Williams broke the 28-word
sentence into 12 unpunctuated lines.
Enjambment Example 4: Metered lines from Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare.
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have That honorable grief lodged here which burns Worse than tears drown….
Enjambment isn't a modern idea, and
is not confined to the world of free verse. Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a master
enjamber, using the device in some of his sonnets and throughout his plays.
These lines from Winter's Tale
are blank verse. The meter is a steady and
predictable iambic pentameter. If each line came to a full
stop, the rhythm might become monotonous. But the lines run counter to the
expected syntax. Enjambment energizes the dialog.
For modern-day readers, this passage
also invites a feminist interpretation, since the enjambment draws attention to
the word "sex."
Enjambment Example 5: Mid-word enjambment in "The Windhover" by
Gerald Manley Hopkins.
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing...
Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
was a Jesuit priest who wrote romantic poems seeped with religious symbolism.
Although he worked in traditional rhyming forms, he was also an innovator who
introduced techniques that seemed radical during his time.
"The Windover" is a
lyrical Petrarchan sonnet with a fixed rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA
CDCDCD. With a keen ear for sound, Hopkins chose rhythmic, musical language to
describe a windhover, which is a type of small falcon. In the opening line,
"kingdom" is oddly hyphenated. By dividing the word into two
syllables, Hopkins was able to preserve the sonnet's rhyme scheme.
"King" in the first line rhymes with "wing" in the fourth
line.
In addition to creating a rhyme, the
mid-word enjambment accentuates the syllable "king," highlights the
majesty of the falcon, and hints at religious symbolism.
Enjambment
Exercise
To practice enjambment and other
forms of poetic lineation, try this quick exercise. Copy the sentence below and
divide it into several lines. Experiment with different line lengths. Where
would you like to add an authoritative stop? Where would you like to break
mid-thought?
for some it is stone bare smooth as a buttock rounding into
the crevasse of the world the garden of delight
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