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Sharp enjambment

Device
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

The sudden and pointed continuation of a syntactic unit onto the next poetic line.

Detailed Definition
Sharp enjambment is a jarring or unexpected line break that disrupts syntactic expectation or semantic flow, often to create tension, surprise, or emphasis; by severing phrases at unconventional points, it heightens reader awareness of both form and content, as in modernist fragmentation or dramatic pauses.
Example
Example in poetry:
In William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow,” “so much depends / upon” uses sharp enjambment to isolate “upon”; In George Oppen’s “Of Being Numerous,” “Clarity / is not the same as understanding” employs sharp enjambment for conceptual break; Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – / The Stillness in the Room” uses sharp enjambment to heighten pause; Sharp enjambment appears in “This is / not a poem” to disrupt expectation
Additional Notes
Sharp enjambment: An abrupt and forceful line break (enjambment) where the grammatical sense is severed at a highly unnatural or unexpected point, often creating surprise, urgency, or an extreme shift in meaning.
Also Known As
Abrupt enjambment sharp run-over jolting break Angular enjambment
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