enjambment

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enjambment

Is there anybody who knows about
this or who perhaps even uses it in
their own writing who can explain to

a lay poet what the point of
it is because I would quite
seriously like to understand

Babewithbrains
Anonymous's picture
it can be used to great effect to create suspense.... .... but most of the time I just use it to see if I can break up prose enough for it to look like a poem. Speaking of which, where exactly does the border lie between poetry and prose? I've read several "poems" recently which are really just prose with clever use of enjambment - what do you think?
e-griff
Anonymous's picture
I only know its from the french and means 'bestride' as in the famous phrase about the Chateau of Chenonceaux, 'qui enjambe la Loire'
fish
Anonymous's picture
is it A) The effect achieved when the syntax of a line of verse transgresses the limits set by the metre at the end of the verse. Metre aims for the integrity of the single verse, whereas syntax will sometimes efface that integrity. Thus 'Black drizzling crags that spake by the way-side/ As if a voice were in them, the sick sight/ And giddy prospect of the raving stream...' End-stopping is the alternative to enjambement. or B) someone chopping up a piece of work willy nilly to make it look like a poem? bearing in mind: Metre: A regular patterned recurrence of light and heavy stresses in a line of verse. These patterns are given names. Almost all poems deliberately depart from the template established by a metrical pattern for specific effect. Assessing a poem's metre requires more than just spotting an iambic pentameter or other metrical pattern: it requires you to think about the ways in which a poem departs from its underlying pattern and why. Emotion might force a reverse foot or trochee, or the normal patterns of speech might occasionally cut across an underlying rhythm. See Iambic Pentameter. NB: it requires you to think about the ways in which a poem departs from its underlying pattern and why thus ... if a so called "poem" has no metre/verse/blah can the running on of lines actually BE enjambement? i have no idea ... but i would like to find out ... are there any perpetrators of enjambement out there who can shed any light??
lettery proms
Anonymous's picture
yes, it comes from the french 'enjamber' which means to step over. enjambment means to put one's leg across. it is particularly useful in a love poem, especially when you want to get your leg over. notice how i used it above to create a nice reverse cascade effect on my well chosen wordies.
Primate
Anonymous's picture
I use it a fair bit. I find it helps to keep the rhythm going, and also it can help with a tricky rhyme if you can use the middle of the sentence not the end.
faithless
Anonymous's picture
oh this is great. thanks. hey i use enjambement and i have no idea what it is... fish..where did you get that information on metre? was it a website?
fish
Anonymous's picture
yes ...
faithless
Anonymous's picture
thanks
andrew pack
Anonymous's picture
Was it www.lovelyritametermaid.com ? Surely a cue for hordes of angry people fresh from savaging e-griff outraged by frivolousness on the forums. Sorry, that just struck me funny - have I really only been away a week ?
beef
Anonymous's picture
A tip regarding enjambement which my writing tutor dude gave us was to always be aware of the end word, before the line break - apologies if this sounds obvious but I'd never thought about it before! I've found it helpful in revising stuff, cos a lot of mine are what she described as weak (the, and, are, though, etc).
fish
Anonymous's picture
pleasure faithless dear ...
fish
Anonymous's picture
http://www.poeticvoices.com/ i think it was ... perhaps ...
glitchfinder hopkins
Anonymous's picture
enjambement i like to use when deploying a weak line since it keeps the thing going is it something used for rhythm or a fancy like break?
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