Editing Enjambment (section)

{{Short description|Incomplete syntax at the end of a line in poetry}}
In poetry, '''enjambment''' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|n|ˈ|dʒ|æ|m|m|ə|n|t|,_|ɛ|n|-|,_|-|ˈ|dʒ|æ|m|b|-}};<ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref> from the French ''enjamber'')<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Greene|first1=Roland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJVlZjIe5o8C|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics|last2=Cushman|first2=Stephen|last3=Cavanagh|first3=Clare|last4=Ramazani|first4=Jahan|last5=Rouzer|first5=Paul|last6=Feinsod|first6=Harris|last7=Marno|first7=David|last8=Slessarev|first8=Alexandra|date=2012-08-26|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-15491-6|language=en}}</ref><ref name=litenc>{{cite web|last=Groves|first=Peter Lewis|title=Run-on Line, Enjambment|url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=338|publisher=The Literary Encyclopedia|access-date=1 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Gardner|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYvliea97TUC|title=Jorie Graham: Essays on the Poetry|date=2005|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-20324-5|language=en}}</ref> is incomplete [[syntax]] at the end of a [[line (poetry)|line]];<ref name="Baldick2008">{{cite book|author=Chris Baldick|title=The Oxford dictionary of literary terms.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mp0s9GgrafUC&pg=PA108|access-date=16 May 2013|date=30 October 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-920827-2|pages=108–}}</ref> the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-22|title=Enjambment - Definition and Examples of Enjambment|url=https://literarydevices.net/enjambment/|access-date=2021-09-05|website=Literary Devices|language=en-us}}</ref> Lines without enjambment are [[end-stopping|end-stopped]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Enjambment|url=http://www.cs.lewisu.edu/~ashleyzizich/enjambment.html|access-date=2021-09-05|website=www.cs.lewisu.edu}}</ref> The origin of the word is credited to the French word ''enjamber'', which means 'to straddle or encroach'.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Nims|first=John Frederick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2m5AAAAIAAJ|title=The Harper Anthology of Poetry|date=1981|publisher=Harper & Row|isbn=978-0-06-044847-9|language=en}}</ref>

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);<ref name=litenc /> 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.<ref name="Preminger 359">Preminger 359</ref> In spite of the apparent contradiction between rhyme, which heightens closure, and enjambment, which delays it, the technique is compatible with rhymed verse.<ref name="Preminger 359" /> Even in [[couplet]]s, the closed or [[heroic couplet]] was a late development; older is the open couplet, where rhyme and enjambed lines co-exist.<ref name="Preminger 359" />

Enjambment has a long history in poetry. [[Homer]] used the technique, and it is the norm for [[alliterative verse]] where rhyme is unknown.<ref name="Preminger 359" /> In the [[Psalm 32|32nd Psalm]] of the Hebrew Bible enjambment is unusually conspicuous.<ref>William R. Taylor, The Book of Psalms, The Interpreters' Bible, volume VI, 1955, Abingdon Press, Nashville, p. 169</ref> 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".<ref name="Preminger 359" />