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Glite Dictionary
🚶 To step over ✍️ To run on (poetry)
to enjamb

to enjamb

9.9
To continue a sentence from one line of a poem into the next without a pause
  • verb
  • /ɪnˈdʒæm/
  • Literature
translation icon : enjambment
  • The poet chose to enjamb several lines to enhance the emotional impact of the poem.

Examples

  • Did you also notice, though, that all the lines are enjambed?

    Blog text (24)

  • But this is not really typical of Spenser, and while some of his stanzas are climactic, their lines generally remain serenely end-stopped, only a small proportion ever being enjambed.

    Academic text (2003)

  • "This is certainly true with respect to caesuras, which are centered mid-line, and to enjambed lines, which are mostly absent.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Enjambing line 5 may be seen as an important strategy in establishing stanzaic integrity, for a couplet in the middle of a stanza can operate as a divisive structure.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Enjambed itself, and following an enjambment, line 6 is thus immovably welded into the discourse by a grammar whose phraseology runs quite counter to the pentameter's units.

    Academic text (2003)

  • In many poems, the lines often enjamb, creating a flowing rhythm from one line to the next.

  • When you read a poem that uses enjambment, you should not pause at the end of each line.

Antonyms

to pause
346 1.0

Stop for a short time before continuing

How Paused

end-stopped
  • Literature
8.2
run-on
  • Literature
3 7.3
to enjamb
  • Literature
9.9

Surface Forms

enjamb infinitive
enjambed past
enjambed past participle
enjambing present participle
enjambs third person singular

Morphology

enjamb = jamb (opaque) = en + jamb

The poetic sense ('to run a sentence across a line break') is a metaphorical extension of 'step over' and is domain-specific, so learners cannot reliably derive it from the components.

Etymology

Enjamb in poetry uses the same idea: en- and jambe ('in' and 'leg'), so you can imagine a sentence 'stepping over' the end of one line into the next. That's why to enjamb a line is to let the meaning carry on into the following line.