Enjambment
Encyclopedia
Enjambment or enjambement is the breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase
, clause
, or sentence
) by the end of a line or between two verses
. It is to be contrasted with end-stopping
, where each linguistic
unit corresponds with a single line, and caesura
, in which the linguistic unit ends mid-line. The term is directly borrowed from the French
enjambement, meaning "straddling" or "bestriding". Enjambment is sometimes referred to as a "run-on line".
uses this technique for humorous effect in the following lines from The Rape of the Lock
:
The second line should confuse the reader, raising the question "Why would a Jew or infidel
adore a cross
?" On second reading, the reader should realize that "breast" does not carry the general androgynous connotation of "chest" but instead the specific idea of a woman's breasts, which are so attractive that a man of any religion
would kiss the Christian
cross to be near.
Enjambment may be used in light verse, such as to form a word that rhymes with "orange", as in this example by Willard Espy, in his poem "The Unrhymable Word: Orange":
Another usage is in alluding to taboo
words, as in the clapping game
"Miss Susie
", which uses the break "... Hell / -o operator" to allude to the taboo word "Hell
", then replaces it with the innocuous "hello".
's The Winter's Tale
(c. 1611) are heavily enjambed:
Meaning flows as the lines progress, and the reader’s eye is forced to go on to the next sentence. It can also make the reader feel uncomfortable or the poem feel like “flow-of-thought”
with a sensation of urgency or disorder.
In contrast, the following lines from Romeo and Juliet
(c. 1595) are completely end-stopped:
Each line is formally correspondent with a unit of thought — in this case, a clause of a sentence. End-stopping is more frequent in early Shakespeare: as his style developed, the proportion of enjambment in his plays increased. Scholars such as Goswin König and A. C. Bradley have estimated approximate dates of undated works of Shakespeare by studying the frequency of enjambment.
combined it with the use of punctuation
as an art form:
, look at the opening lines of Catullus XIII
, ad Fabullum:
Here is an English translation, roughly preserving word order:
The phrase si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam / cenam (“if you bring with you a good and great / dinner”) is sharply enjambed between the third and fourth lines.
The Literary Encyclopedia
Phrase
In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....
, clause
Clause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
, or sentence
Sentence (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
) by the end of a line or between two verses
Verse (poetry)
A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
. It is to be contrasted with end-stopping
End-stopping
An end-stopped line is a feature in poetry in which the syntactic unit corresponds in length to the line. Its opposite is enjambment, where the sense runs on into the next line. According to A. C...
, where each linguistic
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
unit corresponds with a single line, and caesura
Caesura
thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...
, in which the linguistic unit ends mid-line. The term is directly borrowed from the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
enjambement, meaning "straddling" or "bestriding". Enjambment is sometimes referred to as a "run-on line".
Use
Enjambment may also be used to delay the intention of the line until the following line and thus play on the expectation of the reader and surprise them. Alexander PopeAlexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
uses this technique for humorous effect in the following lines from The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712 in two cantos , but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version...
:
- On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
- Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.
The second line should confuse the reader, raising the question "Why would a Jew or infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
adore a cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
?" On second reading, the reader should realize that "breast" does not carry the general androgynous connotation of "chest" but instead the specific idea of a woman's breasts, which are so attractive that a man of any religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
would kiss the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
cross to be near.
Enjambment may be used in light verse, such as to form a word that rhymes with "orange", as in this example by Willard Espy, in his poem "The Unrhymable Word: Orange":
- The four eng-
- ineers
- Wore orange
- brassieres.
Another usage is in alluding to taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
words, as in the clapping game
Clapping game
A clapping game is a type of usually cooperative game which is generally played by two players and involves clapping as accompaniment to a singing game or reciting of a rhyme...
"Miss Susie
Miss Susie
Miss Susie is the name of an American schoolyard rhyme and clapping game in which almost each verse leads up to a rude word or profanity which is elided into the next verse as part of an innocuous word or phrase...
", which uses the break "... Hell / -o operator" to allude to the taboo word "Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
", then replaces it with the innocuous "hello".
Shakespeare
The following lines from ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
(c. 1611) are heavily enjambed:
- 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 honourable grief lodged here which burns
- Worse than tears drown.
Meaning flows as the lines progress, and the reader’s eye is forced to go on to the next sentence. It can also make the reader feel uncomfortable or the poem feel like “flow-of-thought”
Train of thought
The train of thought, stream of thought, trail of thought, or chain of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as the sequence itself, especially in discussion how this sequence leads from one idea to another.When a...
with a sensation of urgency or disorder.
In contrast, the following lines from Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
(c. 1595) are completely end-stopped:
- A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
- The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
- Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
- Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished.
Each line is formally correspondent with a unit of thought — in this case, a clause of a sentence. End-stopping is more frequent in early Shakespeare: as his style developed, the proportion of enjambment in his plays increased. Scholars such as Goswin König and A. C. Bradley have estimated approximate dates of undated works of Shakespeare by studying the frequency of enjambment.
E. E. Cummings
A master of enjambment, E. E. CummingsE. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
combined it with the use of punctuation
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...
as an art form:
- i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
- my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
- i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
- by only me is your doing,my darling)
- i fear
- no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
- no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
- and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
- and whatever a sun will always sing is you
- here is the deepest secret nobody knows
- (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
- and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
- higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
- and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
- i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Catullus
For another example of enjambment in poetryPoetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, look at the opening lines of Catullus XIII
Catullus 13
-Latin text and translation:...
, ad Fabullum:
- Cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me
- paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
- si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
- cenam, non sine candida puella
- et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.
Here is an English translation, roughly preserving word order:
- You will dine well, my Fabullus, at my house
- in a few, if the gods favor you, days,
- and if you bring with you a good and great
- dinner, not without a white girl
- and wine and wit and laughs for all.
The phrase si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam / cenam (“if you bring with you a good and great / dinner”) is sharply enjambed between the third and fourth lines.
Further reading
John Hollander, Vision and Resonance, Oxford U. Press, 1975 (especially chapter 5).The Literary Encyclopedia
See also
- Blank verseBlank verseBlank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
- CaesuraCaesurathumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...
- Concrete poetryConcrete poetryConcrete poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on....
- End-stoppingEnd-stoppingAn end-stopped line is a feature in poetry in which the syntactic unit corresponds in length to the line. Its opposite is enjambment, where the sense runs on into the next line. According to A. C...
- Free verseFree verseFree verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
- Line break (poetry)Line break (poetry)A line break in poetry is when the line of a poem ceases to extend, and a new line starts; within the standard conventions of Western literature, this is usually but not always at the left margin...
- Meter (poetry)Meter (poetry)In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
- Poetic form
- StanzaStanzaIn poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
- Visual poetryVisual poetryVisual poetry is poetry or art in which the visual arrangement of text, images and symbols is important in conveying the intended effect of the work. It is sometimes referred to as concrete poetry, a term that predates visual poetry, and at one time was synonymous with it.Visual poetry was heavily...
- Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...