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Overflow line

Structure
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 of poetry that continues without pause into the next line, often defying syntactic or rhythmic expectations

Detailed Definition
An overflow line is a poetic line that exceeds conventional metrical or syntactic boundaries, spilling into the next line through enjambment to create momentum, surprise, or emphasis; this technique disrupts expected pauses, heightening tension or mimicking thought’s fluidity, as when a grammatical unit continues beyond a line break to delay resolution or reorient meaning.
Example
Example in poetry:
Enjambment carrying meaning past the line break, as in William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends / upon”; In “Birches” by Frost: “I’d like to get away from earth awhile / And then come back to it and begin over”; Whitman’s “Song of Myself”: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume”; Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool”: “We / Jazz June”
Additional Notes
An overflow line (enjambment) continues syntax beyond the line break to create momentum, surprise, or emphasis; vary with end-stopped lines to control pacing and tension.
Also Known As
Run-On Line Enjambed Extension Spillover Verse Continuous Line asymmetric overflow Hypermetric line
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