Enjambment in Poetry: Definition, Examples & How to Spot It
Poetic device · 3 poems · 3 annotated examples
What does it mean when a poem's sentence continues past the end of a line? That's called enjambment. The term comes from the French word for "straddling," and that’s precisely what it does: a sentence or phrase straddles the line break, flowing into the next line without pausing.
In many poems, lines end where grammatical structures do — like at a comma or period, or where you naturally take a breath. This is known as an end-stopped line. Enjambment takes the opposite approach. The line halts mid-thought, and you need to keep reading to see where the sentence concludes.
Poets use enjambment for a few key reasons. First, it builds momentum. When a line doesn’t give you a chance to pause, you’re pushed to lean forward. Second, the break itself holds significance — the last word of one line lingers for a moment before the next line reinterprets it. A poet can leverage that pause to create surprise, irony, or tension. Lastly, enjambment reflects how our thoughts actually flow: not in tidy, complete chunks, but in bursts and shifts.
When you read an enjambed poem aloud, you sense the tension between two rhythms: the rhythm of the line (where the poet chose to break it) and the rhythm of the sentence (where the grammar leads). That friction is essential. It keeps the poem vibrant and restless, rather than static and closed.
Annotated examples
Enjambment in famous poems, line-by-line
I willed my Keepsakes — Signed away What portion of me be Assignable
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still,
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
How to spot enjambment
What to look for when you read
When you're reading a poem and trying to spot enjambment, use this checklist:
1. **Examine line endings.** If a line ends without any punctuation — no comma, period, semicolon, or dash — it might be enjambment.
2. **Read the sentence across the break.** Does the grammar continue on the next line? If so, the line is enjambed.
3. **Consider if the line could stand alone.** An end-stopped line feels complete. An enjambed line feels incomplete — it draws you in.
4. **Pay attention to the last word of the line.** Poets often place a significant or ambiguous word at the break. If that word takes on a different meaning before the next line clarifies it, enjambment is at work.
5. **Listen for contrasting rhythms.** Read the poem out loud. If you sense a conflict between where the line ends and where your voice naturally wants to pause for grammar, that tension indicates enjambment.
6. **Look at the first word of the next line.** Enjambment frequently places an unexpected or clarifying word at the start of the following line, giving it added emphasis.
How to write with enjambment
A practical guide for poets
Here are three practical ways to incorporate enjambment into your own poems:
1. **Break on a word that can mean two things.** End a line with a word that has one meaning on its own, then allow the next line to shift that meaning. For instance: *She left the room / light, as if grief had no weight at all* — "light" initially describes the room before the line break reveals it refers to her movement.
2. **Delay the verb.** Begin a sentence in one line and hold off on the verb until the next, creating a moment where the reader is left hanging with a subject and no action. For example: *The dog at the end of the chain / lunged once, then lay down in the dust* — the pause after "chain" makes the lunge feel unexpected when it finally occurs.
3. **Use the line break to reflect the poem's meaning.** If your poem addresses themes of interruption, incompleteness, or forward motion, let the syntax illustrate that. For example: *I was going to tell you everything / but the window was open and the wind* — the unfinished sentence becomes central to the poem, rather than a flaw.
More poems using enjambment
Curated from the public-domain corpus