Omission & Flow
Enjambment
Continuing a phrase or sentence across a verse line break without a complete pause in the syntax. The break can delay a needed word or briefly suggest a meaning that the next line changes.
"April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land…" — Eliot
Don't confuse it with. An end-stopped line completes its grammar at the break. Caesura is a pause *inside* the line, not at its edge.
A similar example that does not qualify
I reached the gate. The field lay white with snow.
Each line ends with a complete sentence: end-stopping. Merely arranging words in lines does not create enjambment.
Counterexample written for practice.
Compare sentences using Enjambment →Examples
I left the lamp beside the window, where you used to read.
The verse line breaks between the preposition “beside” and its object “the window.”
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
The noun “fruit” at the line end is continued by “Of that forbidden tree” on the next line.
A possible effect: The line break briefly holds the fruit in view before the next line specifies its fatal source.
Practice explaining this example →I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
The relative clause beginning “That floats” continues the description of “cloud” across the line break.
A possible effect: The continuing syntax lets the solitary cloud move onward through the landscape rather than end at its first appearance.
Practice explaining this example →I reached the gate beyond the field. Snow covered the path.
The line break separates “beyond” from its grammatical complement.
A possible effect: The incomplete phrase carries the reader into the next line to locate the gate.
Practice explaining this example →She opened the letter and found A single word: return.
The verb “found” waits across the line break for its object.
A possible effect: The break delays disclosure of what the letter says, giving “A single word” extra attention.
Practice explaining this example →Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as enjambment.
Metaphor 6 Anaphora 6 Parallelism 4 Polysyndeton 3 Catachresis 3 Polyptoton 3