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Enjambed

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A descriptive term for a line of poetry that continues the sentence's thought into the next line without punctuation

Detailed Definition
Enjambed describes a line of poetry that does not end at a grammatical or syntactic pause but instead continues its thought or sentence into the following line, creating a fluid, dynamic rhythm that mimics natural speech and builds momentum; enjambment disrupts the expectation of end-stopped lines, encouraging the reader to move quickly forward and often generating tension between the visual structure of the poem and its auditory flow—as in Wordsworth’s “My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky,” where the break after “behold” delays the object of vision, enhancing anticipation and emotional impact.
Example
Example in poetry:
Enjambed|Hughes's "Does it dry up / like a raisin"; Line continuing without pause to next; Williams's "I have eaten / the plums"; Thought flowing across line break
Additional Notes
Enjambed lines run over from one line to the next without pause or punctuation, creating fluidity, tension, or surprise in meaning.
Also Known As
Run-on Overflow Carried-over Continued line
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