enjambment

American  

[en-jam-muhnt, -jamb-] / ɛnˈdʒæm mənt, -ˈdʒæmb- /

noun

Prosody.

enjambments plural

1. the running on of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break.

   Enjambment is a creative device of long standing, famously used by Homer, Shakespeare, and Eliot, among many other literary luminaries.

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enjambment British  

/ ɑ̃ʒɑ̃bmɑ̃, ɪnˈdʒæmmənt /

noun

1. prosody the running over of a sentence from one line of verse into the next

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• enjambed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

noun

• enjambments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of enjambment

First recorded in 1830–40; from French enjambement, equivalent to enjamb(er) “to stride over, project, encroach” ( en- + -jamber, derivative of jambe “leg” + -ment ); see origin at en- ¹, jamb ¹, -ment

Explanation

When a phrase, a clause, or a sentence in a line of poetry doesn't finish at the line break but spills over into the next line, that's an enjambment. If you know French, you'll recognize the word jambe "leg" — an enjambment is like a leg striding from one line to the next. You can see that leap from one line into the next in T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land," where each of the first three lines ends with an enjambment: "April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain."

Example Sentences

Enjambment, when a syntactic unit overflows from one line to the next, is a bedrock poetic practice, one that endows poets with the capacity to make and remake meaning.

From New York Times • Mar. 4, 2021

Enjambment, en-jamb′ment, n. in verse, the continuation of a sentence beyond the end of the line.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various