Enjambment

In poetry, enjambment (/ɪnˈdʒæmmənt, ɛn-, -ˈdʒæmb-/;[1] from the French enjamber)[2][3][4] is incomplete syntax at the end of a line;[5] the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation.[6] Lines without enjambment are end-stopped.[7] The origin of the word is credited to the French word enjamber, which means 'to straddle or encroach'.[2][8]

In reading, the delay of meaning creates a tension that is released when the word or phrase that completes the syntax is encountered (called the rejet);[3] the tension arises from the "mixed message" produced both by the pause of the line-end, and the suggestion to continue provided by the incomplete meaning.[9] In spite of the apparent contradiction between rhyme, which heightens closure, and enjambment, which delays it, the technique is compatible with rhymed verse.[9] Even in couplets, the closed or heroic couplet was a late development; older is the open couplet, where rhyme and enjambed lines co-exist.[9]

Enjambment has a long history in poetry. Homer used the technique, and it is the norm for alliterative verse where rhyme is unknown.[9] In the 32nd Psalm of the Hebrew Bible enjambment is unusually conspicuous.[10] It was used extensively in England by Elizabethan poets for dramatic and narrative verses, before giving way to closed couplets. The example of John Milton in Paradise Lost laid the foundation for its subsequent use by the English Romantic poets; in its preface he identified it as one of the chief features of his verse: "sense variously drawn out from one verse into another".[9]

  1. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  2. ^ a b Greene, Roland; Cushman, Stephen; Cavanagh, Clare; Ramazani, Jahan; Rouzer, Paul; Feinsod, Harris; Marno, David; Slessarev, Alexandra (2012-08-26). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15491-6.
  3. ^ a b Groves, Peter Lewis. "Run-on Line, Enjambment". The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  4. ^ Gardner, Thomas (2005). Jorie Graham: Essays on the Poetry. Univ of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-20324-5.
  5. ^ Chris Baldick (30 October 2008). The Oxford dictionary of literary terms. Oxford University Press. pp. 108–. ISBN 978-0-19-920827-2. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  6. ^ "Enjambment - Definition and Examples of Enjambment". Literary Devices. 2020-12-22. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  7. ^ "Enjambment". www.cs.lewisu.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  8. ^ Nims, John Frederick (1981). The Harper Anthology of Poetry. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-044847-9.
  9. ^ a b c d e Preminger 359
  10. ^ William R. Taylor, The Book of Psalms, The Interpreters' Bible, volume VI, 1955, Abingdon Press, Nashville, p. 169