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Mid-line run-on

Meter
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 line that continues without pause into the next line, with the enjambment occurring mid-thought

Detailed Definition
Mid-line run-on (or mid-line enjambment) occurs when a syntactic unit continues past the middle of a line without pause, accelerating pace or creating suspense; it defies metrical expectations by spilling thought across internal line breaks, enhancing fluidity or mimicking breathless urgency in dramatic or narrative contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
In John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense” demonstrates mid-line run-on (enjambment) from “pains” into the next line; In William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow,” “so much depends / upon” uses mid-line run-on to delay meaning; In Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died,” “The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— / And Breaths were gathering firm” shows mid-line run-on for suspense; In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky” uses mid-line run-on to sustain rhythm.
Additional Notes
Mid-line run-on (enjambment) continues a sentence or phrase across a line break without pause; creates momentum, suspense, or natural speech rhythm; contrast with end-stopped lines for dynamic variation.
Also Known As
Enjambment run-on line flowing syntax continuous line Natural-break enjambment Sense-divided run-on
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