What Is Enjambment? | Definition & Examples

Enjambment is a literary device where a sentence or phrase in a poetic line continues to the next line, unseparated by a pause or punctuation. The term is appropriately named, as it is derived from the French word enjambement, which means "to step over." 

There are several reasons as to why a poet would use enjambment. We will discuss them in this article and provide examples of enjambment and compare and contrast these examples with end-stop poetry, including examples from the likes of Ben Jonson and Nikki Giovanni.

Image of Nikki Giovanni from 1980.

Why do poets use enjambment? 

Enjambment creates a sense of urgency in the reader. It compels the reader to read on from one line to the next without taking a pause. Let’s look at how Kamau Brathwaite uses enjambment in his poetry. The poem in question is “Columbus” (published in 1992):

Columbus from his after-

deck watched stars, absorbed in water,

melt in liquid amber drifting

through my summer air.

Now with morning, shadows lifting,

beaches stretched before him cold and clear.

Birds circled flapping flag and mizzen

mast: birds harshly hawking, without fear.

Brathwaite uses a mixture of enjambment and end-stop lines in this poem. He is seeking to recapture a pivotal moment in history — Christopher Colombus’ “discovery” of the Americas. The very first line of the poem presents a very radical example of enjambment.

The word “afterdeck” is broken into two using a hyphen. The purpose is partly to add rhythm and rhyme to the poem, as we see the poet rhymes the first line with the second line using after/water to make up a rhyming couplet. 

In addition to this, the poet seeks to create a sense of nervous energy. The poem features two characters. The first is the persona narrating the poem, an Indigenous Native American from a Caribbean island witnessing Christopher Columbus’ arrival. The other is Christopher Columbus himself. 

Both individuals are faced with fear and uncertainty. Columbus has no idea what this New World has in store. The Native also has no idea what horror or delight Christopher Columbus’ arrival will bring to their culture. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that it was mostly horror (for the Natives). 

The contrast between end-stop lines such as Line 5, “Now with morning, shadows lifting” and enjambed lines like Lines 3 and 4 “melt in liquid amber drifting / through my summer air” gives the poem a sense of suspense as to what will happen when these two foreign cultures meet or rather collide. 

Enjambment vs. end-stopped poetry

It would be useful to compare a poem that relies on end-stopped lines to enjambed poetry. In the case of Kamau Brathwaite's "Columbus," we are looking at free verse poetry. Just like other examples of free verse poetry, the poet relies heavily on the arrangement of the lines on the page.

This is in contrast to traditional poetic forms that rely on regular rhyming schemes and patterns, such as the traditional sonnet. For our purposes, we will choose a sonnet by Ben Jonson, “On My First Son” (published in 1616):

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.

Seven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,

Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

O, could I lose all father now! For why

Will man lament the state he should envy?

To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,

And if no other misery, yet age?

Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, "Here doth lie

Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."

For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,

As what he loves may never like too much.

The poem isn’t simply a sonnet. It is an elegy by Ben Jonson mourning the death of his seven-year old son. The poet relies mostly on end-stopped lines, which is emphasized by his use of rhyming couplets, that is, pairs of consecutive lines that rhyme with each other. 

The end-stopped lines and neat rhyming couplets reflect the purpose of the poem. Jonson is attempting to reason his way out of sorrow. He consoles himself by saying that at least his son escaped the “misery” of living or at least the miseries of “age.” He uses a poet’s logic and conceives his son as “his best piece of poetry.” 

The poem is rather sad with the poet accusing himself of committing a sin by putting too much hope in his son and paying the price of witnessing his son’s death in Lines 2–4. It seems like a rather Roman Catholic sentiment to resolve to “what he loves may never like too much” as the poet does by the end of the line.

This is really no consolation to the poet even though he tells himself or rather us otherwise. In Lines 5–6, the poet writes “For why / Will man lament the state he should envy?” This is the one instance of enjambment. 

We should also note that the “y” sound in “why” is traditionally associated with mourning in traditional English poetry. So even as the poet asserts his resolution to see the “brighter side” of his son’s death in dying early and avoiding misery, he is unconsciously expressing his deep pain sonically. 

---

Get in touch for help in editing your content

Learn More

---

Free verse and enjambment

As established earlier, free verse poetry relies heavily on the arrangement of the lines on the page, which is as important as other aspects of traditional poetry, such as traditional rhyme scheme and meter. Let’s look at another example from the last three stanzas of Nikki Giovanni’s “Balances” (published in 1997):

we used to talk all night

and do things alone together

and i've begun

(as a reaction to a feeling)

to balance

the pleasure of loneliness

against the pain

of loving you

The poem’s lines are short or narrow and is bereft of the hallmarks of traditional punctuation and capitalization that we find in Ben Jonson’s “To My son.” The esthetics and effects of the poem rely entirely on the ability of the reader to catch the idea being expressed despite the unconventional punctuation and frequent enjambment. 

The poem works because, like most of free verse poetry that works, it faithfully recreates the cadence of modern conversational language. We see this in particular in the words in parentheses: “(as a reaction to a feeling).” 

This is how people think and talk. They don’t talk in perfect grammar and punctuation, but instead in this type of interruptive and non-linear way. It also helps that the poet eloquently expresses a rather familiar feeling for those who have ever been in love. 

Making the hard choice between staying with someone you love because you love them or leaving because that same person is a source of pain. The poet also saves this revelation till the end of the poem and delivers it with all the subtle force and shock of the ending couplet of a Shakespearean sonnet. 

---

Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, July 05). What Is Enjambment? | Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/enjambment