Run-on Line, Enjambment

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Peter Lewis Groves (Monash University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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Enjambment (pron.

injámment

): incomplete syntax at the end of the line. In the following example, the string

what thou and I

is looking for a verb to complete it, but the line-ending interrupts the onward pressure of the syntax, creating a kind of tension that is released when the verb is encountered at the beginning of the next line:

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I » Did, till we lovd? Were we not weand till then? (John Donne, The Good-morrow)

The word or phrase that completes the syntax and releases the tension is called the rejet (underlined in these examples): where the rejet is brief, as in the Donne example, the release is energetic, but

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446 words

Citation: Groves, Peter Lewis. "Run-on Line, Enjambment". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001; last revised 11 February 2005. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=338, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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