Enjambment

[twelveoone]

to enjamb
or not to enjamb

that is the question

whether 'tis farr nobler to fullengestopf or have your sentences run over.

Enjambment (also spelled enjambement) is the breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses.

Does everyone agree with that, all the way down to a clause?

How about this:
Meaning flows as the lines progress, and the reader’s eye is forced to go on to the next sentence. It can also make the reader feel uncomfortable or the poem feel like “flow-of-thought” with a sensation of urgency or disorder.

Question posed, how good or effective is it in a Terza rima

which because of its interlocking rhyme has also a tendecy to force the reader along?
Example:

Acquainted With the Night by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night. (a)
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. (b)
I have outwalked the furthest city light. (a)
I have looked down the saddest city lane. (b)
I have passed by the watchman on his beat (c) ~phrase
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. (b)
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet (c) OK what happens here?
When far away an interrupted cry (d)
Came over houses from another street, (c)
But not to call me back or say good-by; (d)
And further still at an unearthly height (e) tricky but it's a phrase, where does the clock belong?
One luminary clock against the sky (d) ~phrase
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. (e)
I have been one acquainted with the night. (e)

Bold is fullest of full stops, can't get anymore stoppered than a period. ( I think someone made a crack in another thread, ho, ho) Except unless you add a stanza break.
And really we should add colons, semi-colons, probably allow for commas as pauses,
phrases - what do you think? Now if a phrase starts the next line, is it a complete syntactic unit on the line above?

 

[twelveoone]

another thought, without a stop the RHYME seems to be de-emphasised, not a bad thing, however it is one of the major reasons for useing it. no?

Just some random thoughts tossed out...the choices, the choices. Could it be that Pat Carrington was right all along? Does the sign really read at the entrance to Formland? "All hope abandon ye who enter here."

 

[Angeline]

Carnivale

The days that now grow shorter soon will turn
to meat redolent nights that carry song
to the canals dipped by oars. Voices burn

their secret whispers, churn with lies along
these ancient streets, brush mystery to silk.
Columbina’s shaking hands do no wrong

to lift the masque, display the tender milk
of skin, the fair neck bared to Saturn’s lips,
soft and sickle curved. Others of his ilk

caper with clouds, approve these mortal sips
of human flesh, loosening dress, the bite
to harvest her desire, draw her hips

to pulsing flesh and seed her in the night
of her pale thighs. Her smile as clouds sail by.

I think it worked in my Terza Rima. I like having the rhyme de-emphasized; the reader still hears it, but not in that sing-songy rhythm one often gets when the end stop and rhyme are together.

Did you mean enjambment in a form poem is counter-intuitive?(Forgive me if I've garbled what you said--I'm still waking up.) What did you mean by that?

 

[champagne1982]

I believe rhyme should not be the sole defining criterion in determining the line end, even in a formula such as a terza rima. If you write in a metrical rhythm, the other determinant is the logical accent falling where the break occurs. That's where, I think, the true skill in writing to a set formula lies; to have those 2 factors happen to come together at the break whether they be end-stopped or enjambed.

 

[twelveoone]

Carnivale

The days that now grow shorter soon will turn
to meat redolent nights that carry song
to the canals dipped by oars. Voices burn

their secret whispers, churn with lies along
these ancient streets, brush mystery to silk.
Columbina’s shaking hands do no wrong

to lift the masque, display the tender milk
of skin, the fair neck bared to Saturn’s lips,
soft and sickle curved. Others of his ilk

caper with clouds, approve these mortal sips
of human flesh, loosening dress, the bite
to harvest her desire, draw her hips

to pulsing flesh and seed her in the night
of her pale thighs. Her smile as clouds sail by.

I think it worked in my Terza Rima. I like having the rhyme de-emphasized; the reader still hears it, but not in that sing-songy rhythm one often gets when the end stop and rhyme are together.

Did you mean enjambment in a form poem is counter-intuitive?(Forgive me if I've garbled what you said--I'm still waking up.) What did you mean by that?

to start, your's is excellent, let's get that out of the way.
Why no rhyme at the end couplet?
Enjambent in a Terza Rima, seems VERY counter-intuitive to me, the interlocking rhyme, pulls along, AND the enjambment hurries.

Really, if I was still doing Interact, this would be a prime canidate. It is excellent, and your reasons probably are well worth hearing.

I'm doing a little Devil's Advocating.
My belief vis-à-vis emjambment is the less used the greater the impact when used.

Wondering if it would be an imposition IF ALL of you marked off where, and stated why?

I already bolded something you said, the net effect, is almost like reading free verse because of this de-emphasis, shall we say subtle? And rhyme like metre (forms of repitition)are tools to induce a sort of hypnosis.

 

[Angeline]

to start, your's is excellent, let's get that out of the way.
Why no rhyme at the end couplet?
Enjambent in a Terza Rima, seems VERY counter-intuitive to me, the interlocking rhyme, pulls along, AND the enjambment hurries.

Really, if I was still doing Interact, this would be a prime canidate. It is excellent, and your reasons probably are well worth hearing.

I'm doing a little Devil's Advocating.
My belief vis-à-vis emjambment is the less used the greater the impact when used.

Wondering if it would be an imposition IF ALL of you marked off where, and stated why?

I already bolded something you said, the net effect, is almost like reading free verse because of this de-emphasis, shall we say subtle? And rhyme like metre (forms of repitition)are tools to induce a sort of hypnosis.

I figured you were playing Devil's Advocate.

I, too, would love to hear what other people think about enjambment. If they do it, why? What's the goal with using it? To force the reading toward prose? To thumb one's nose at the form? Why does one do it (or not) in free verse? I've seen comments that say do it, don't do it, you didn't do it the right way. Why?

Your argument is a good one: if one enjambs lines to force a reading that makes a form poem sound like free verse, why write a form poem at all? (Somewhere RainMan is smiling. See Rainy, I kinda sorta do agree with you.)

But I still like to write them. They're fun. Yes, it is like doing a crossword puzzle. I find finishing those satisfying, too.

To me, writing a form poem is a test of whether I can write a good poem and maintain the integrity of the form. Also, I don't care if forms are archaic or out of style--the other argument against writing them. I like them and I write them for me. I don't care what's "in style." Generally, I'm not, lol. I do like to know what the current "right way" buzz is, but I won't follow it unless it works for me.

That last couplet? I could have rhymed it, said something about flight and clouds (I did want to keep the cloud reference to Mount Olympus though). I just liked "sail by" better and the assonance with "thighs" and "by" worked well. And I don't think changing that last rhyme corrupts the form, just gives it a gentle shove.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

I think of enjambment as a way to savor a particular word before moving on to the next phrase--to linger on an image. Sometimes it is useful to keep an uneven flow, also, to convey a mood or voice appropriate to the theme. I love the poem by Angeline in this thread. It's so sexy!

 

[Angeline]

I think of enjambment as a way to savor a particular word before moving on to the next phrase--to linger on an image. Sometimes it is useful to keep an uneven flow, also, to convey a mood or voice appropriate to the theme. I love the poem by Angeline in this thread. It's so sexy!

Thank you. It's a sexy little story, isn't it? Carnivale in Venice, a harvest of excess before Lent, the elaborate costumes and anonymous sex. Actually it would be a great setting for an erotic story. Hmmm.

I'm glad you mentioned that other purpose of enjambment: to get the reader to hold on to a word a moment longer (if you only hear the rhyme, maybe you miss the nuances of meaning) and use your imagination. That should be the underlying principle of line breaks overall.

 

[twelveoone]

I think of enjambment as a way to savor a particular word before moving on to the next phrase--to linger on an image. Sometimes it is useful to keep an uneven flow, also, to convey a mood or voice appropriate to the theme. I love the poem by Angeline in this thread. It's so sexy!

an example, pls

 

[PandoraGlitters]

ok well in this

I want to anoint her in lager and honey
baked pretzels and scrub the predator ridges
clean off her nearly pretty face.

all three lines would need to be on one line to end at the stop but that would be one very long line, wouldn't it? I could have had the first line end at pretzels and taken the conjunction as the opportunity for the new line, but ending at honey pairs lager and honey rather than lager and pretzels, giving it more of an altruistic feel. Lager and honey sounds like a mysterious beauty treatment known by ancient peoples whereas lager and pretzels just seems like stuff at a bar.

Now to look at the work of a much better writer. In this famous poem, "Daddy," Plath adds emphasis by repetition and enjambment to the word do. Granted, she is ending at a verb phrase but it isn't a stop at all, is it? And in fact, I'm not even sure that do is the end of the verb phrase. (Would it end after more?) In any case, the stop comes after more, in the middle of the next line.

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Here, in Yeats's "Second Coming," enjambment serves the purpose of emphasis.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Here on the fifth and seventh line, the enjambment heightens the emotional impact of everywhere and worst.

Regarding the uneven flow to convey tone, I used that in the poem suffering in the 5 poems thread. I think I used enjambment extensively in that poem to give a broken feeling like breathing with broken ribs. At least that's what I was trying to do.

I guess that's what I meant. I feel like a kid in school who has been asked to provide the teacher an example to show she really understood the concept. heh. Did I pass, teacher?

Yikes. I hope you weren't just asking for an example of how Angelina's poem was sexy. If so let me know and I'll answer in another post!

 

[twelveoone]

I guess that's what I meant. I feel like a kid in school who has been asked to provide the teacher an example to show she really understood the concept. heh. Did I pass, teacher?

Yikes. I hope you weren't just asking for an example of how Angelina's poem was sexy. If so let me know and I'll answer in another post!

I think you did quite well, don't call me teach, and if you wish, go ahead with why you think....

Enjambment is a bit of black art, technically you ARE NOT supposed to pause, but YOU DO. I tend to think of it as a half comma.

I think I mentioned a few years back the last word in a line is one of the most important - one reason I prefer free verse.

Here is one of mine

Someday I'll love ya, baby
Someday I'll die on my couch and decay
And when the tox squad comes in
To clean up the mess - and throw open the windows
I hope their hearts break <<<<<<<
out in song

She - would have wanted it that way

Hell - she would have wanted to sing along

a totally igonored piece of doggeral by the literati here, but notable for that better than Shakespearen "break", and Philip K. Dick fuck up of time sense, i.e. what better way to destroy a cliche.
Shakespeare was lucky, they didn't have many cliches in his day.

 

[Angeline]

I think you did quite well, don't call me teach, and if you wish, go ahead with why you think....

Enjambment is a bit of black art, technically you ARE NOT supposed to pause, but YOU DO. I tend to think of it as a half comma.

I think I mentioned a few years back the last word in a line is one of the most important - one reason I prefer free verse.

Here is one of mine

Someday I'll love ya, baby
Someday I'll die on my couch and decay
And when the tox squad comes in
To clean up the mess - and throw open the windows
I hope their hearts break <<<<<<<
out in song

She - would have wanted it that way

Hell - she would have wanted to sing along

a totally igonored piece of doggeral by the literati here, but notable for that better than Shakespearen "break", and Philip K. Dick fuck up of time sense, i.e. what better way to destroy a cliche.
Shakespeare was lucky, they didn't have many cliches in his day.

That line break of yours is wonderful. It makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

Okay. Back to baseball.

 

[bronzeage]

Threads like this make me wish I had spent more time in 3000 level English courses instead of doing the mental geometry required to calculate counter clockwise when the oil filter is upside down and under the exhaust manifold.

I read the wiki article, which selected pieces from Winter's Tale to show enjambment, and it struck me as geological terms to describe rock formations. The definitions are created to match observations, the rocks were not formed to fit a catagory.

When poetry is read out loud, line length seems to vanish into the speaker's voice. The audience will never know

I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown.

these four thoughts were printed on five lines, and none of them confined to a single line.

I worry over line length, stresses and meter, lacking the formal education in the last two, which might make it easier for me. In the end, I go for what looks and reads best on paper, but knowing when it is read for an audience, none of them will know the difference.

Here is one of mine.

Hot Biscuits

Scratch baker girl in a dusty apron.
Shortening and flour, momma, cut me in
and bathe me in sweet milk
till I squeeze sticky through your fingers.
Brown me top and bottom,
butter and jam
me in your mouth.

 

[champagne1982]

<snip>

I worry over line length, stresses and meter, lacking the formal education in the last two, which might make it easier for me. In the end, I go for what looks and reads best on paper, but knowing when it is read for an audience, none of them will know the difference.

Here is one of mine.

Hot Biscuits

Scratch baker girl in a dusty apron.
Shortening and flour, momma, cut me in
and bathe me in sweet milk
till I squeeze sticky through your fingers.
Brown me top and bottom,
butter and jam
me in your mouth.

If I may, this edit is how I may have chose to break your poem differently. It's not a correction, merely an exercise in reading.

Hot Biscuits

Scratch baker
girl in a dusty apron.
Shortening and flour, momma, cut
me in and bathe me in sweet
milk till I squeeze sticky
through your fingers.
Brown me top and bottom,
butter and jam
me in your mouth.

I'd even consider using "Scratch Baker" as the title rather than the somewhat revealing and directing "Hot Biscuits".

 

[Angeline]

Threads like this make me wish I had spent more time in 3000 level English courses instead of doing the mental geometry required to calculate counter clockwise when the oil filter is upside down and under the exhaust manifold.

I read the wiki article, which selected pieces from Winter's Tale to show enjambment, and it struck me as geological terms to describe rock formations. The definitions are created to match observations, the rocks were not formed to fit a catagory.

When poetry is read out loud, line length seems to vanish into the speaker's voice. The audience will never know

I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown.

these four thoughts were printed on five lines, and none of them confined to a single line.

I worry over line length, stresses and meter, lacking the formal education in the last two, which might make it easier for me. In the end, I go for what looks and reads best on paper, but knowing when it is read for an audience, none of them will know the difference.

Here is one of mine.

Hot Biscuits

Scratch baker girl in a dusty apron.
Shortening and flour, momma, cut me in
and bathe me in sweet milk
till I squeeze sticky through your fingers.
Brown me top and bottom,
butter and jam
me in your mouth.

I like your poem.

I always think of enjambment as a guideline to tell me where to pause when I read a poem. It might be a really brief pause, but the line break tells me the writer wants me to consider that word in that place for an extra moment before moving on. It also cues me that the last word on the line may have two different meanings: one on the line it appears in and another if read with the following line. I love what you did with the last two lines of your poem: that is how I use enjambment. I was suprised when Lorencino talked about re-reading a word on the second line and thinking about it in terms of rhythm. Never considered it that way before, but it certainly worked in his example.

 

[sophieloves]

ok, i don't know the technicals.. just how i read things personally. when i read an enjambement, what i do at the end of a line depends entirely on what has proceded and what comes after. frequently this means i read straight into the following line, but sometimes there's a moment's demi-pause. sometimes i ask myself why they broke where they did, and often find the answer's because of how a line can then be read two ways as in the case of twelveone's piece here:

Someday I'll love ya, baby
Someday I'll die on my couch and decay
And when the tox squad comes in
To clean up the mess - and throw open the windows
I hope their hearts break
out in song

there's the one inferred meaning in the line that alters as we move into the next.

i tend to find some of it is about the stresses then laid on the opening syllable following the line-break, but when read aloud this frequently disappears. maybe i read things aloud all wrong, but it feels more an eye than an ear thing?

 

[sophieloves]

If I may, this edit is how I may have chose to break your poem differently. It's not a correction, merely an exercise in reading.

Hot Biscuits

Scratch baker
girl in a dusty apron.
Shortening and flour, momma, cut
me in and bathe me in sweet
milk till I squeeze sticky
through your fingers.
Brown me top and bottom,
butter and jam
me in your mouth.

I'd even consider using "Scratch Baker" as the title rather than the somewhat revealing and directing "Hot Biscuits".

i'd agree about the title and i love the way the final two lines work visually as well as with the sense of taste/texture.

 

[lorencino]

If I may, this edit is how I may have chose to break your poem differently. It's not a correction, merely an exercise in reading.

Hot Biscuits

Scratch baker
girl in a dusty apron.
Shortening and flour, momma, cut
me in and bathe me in sweet
milk till I squeeze sticky
through your fingers.
Brown me top and bottom,
butter and jam
me in your mouth.



I'd even consider using "Scratch Baker" as the title rather than the somewhat revealing and directing "Hot Biscuits".

This is quite, quite fascinating: The identical word order; very different results. On reading the original, I felt outside the poem, a cool and distant observer, and the lines felt forced. With champagne1982's version I fell feelingly into the flow of the poem on the second line and drifted along in perfect harmony with the words and the rhythm until the end. I haven't analyzed why it should be this way, (Hell, I hadn't even heard the word "enjambement" since the late 60's until this week and certainly had no memory of what it means.) but that is the result of the change for me.

On the question of the line breaks disappearing when the poem is read I'd venture a personal observation which may or may not reflect the norm. I grew up in South Africa where we were in thrall to the British pole of English. On moving to Canada, I was immediately aware of the strong influence of American English. Besides all the punctuation and spelling differences I was struck by the way that Americans read poetry. You knew immediately when someone was reading a poem.

In the same way that a revivalist preacher sounds predictably distinct from ordinary conversation, people reading poetry seemed to me to go into poetry-reading mode and all sound very similar. Not only is there a change in pitch but there is a greater uniformity of pitch to the point of droning. For me, this incantatory style of uttering verse draws poetry to a different plain from life, and thus deprives it of the vulgar necessities of lived life--drains it of its blood. It also means that all of these rhythmic devices, like enjambement, become over-emphasized. Pitch is abandoned in favour of rhythm.

I was, therefore, quite surprised to read Bronzeage's comment about the breaks disappearing when the verse is spoken. Have I been oblivious to a whole different way of reading poetry in North America? Have I been stuck in some PBS ghetto where culture is carefully parceled for presentation to the pretentious and the inane? Oh, the joys of new discoveries.

Now I have the pleasant prospect, as well, of trying to understand enjambement theory. Thank you, twelveoone.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

I'd just like to interject here that in either edit, that's a really hot poem.
Yum. thanks.

bijou

 

[lorencino]

I'd just like to interject here that in either edit, that's a really hot poem.
Yum. thanks.

bijou

And also about the jam in that enjambe

Enjambe and
jamme in(to-
gether in) your mouth because
when you enjambe
you're jammin,
when you're jammin, you wan-
ta jam together with someone
and
. . . what kumzapart has the pouwah to
cometogetherrrr
lijk jammm, rite now!

 

[twelveoone]

This is quite, quite fascinating: The identical word order; very different results. On reading the original, I felt outside the poem, a cool and distant observer, and the lines felt forced. With champagne1982's version I fell feelingly into the flow of the poem on the second line and drifted along in perfect harmony with the words and the rhythm until the end. I haven't analyzed why it should be this way, (Hell, I hadn't even heard the word "enjambement" since the late 60's until this week and certainly had no memory of what it means.) but that is the result of the change for me.

On the question of the line breaks disappearing when the poem is read I'd venture a personal observation which may or may not reflect the norm. I grew up in South Africa where we were in thrall to the British pole of English. On moving to Canada, I was immediately aware of the strong influence of American English. Besides all the punctuation and spelling differences I was struck by the way that Americans read poetry. You knew immediately when someone was reading a poem.

In the same way that a revivalist preacher sounds predictably distinct from ordinary conversation, people reading poetry seemed to me to go into poetry-reading mode and all sound very similar. Not only is there a change in pitch but there is a greater uniformity of pitch to the point of droning. For me, this incantatory style of uttering verse draws poetry to a different plain from life, and thus deprives it of the vulgar necessities of lived life--drains it of its blood. It also means that all of these rhythmic devices, like enjambement, become over-emphasized. Pitch is abandoned in favour of rhythm.

I was, therefore, quite surprised to read Bronzeage's comment about the breaks disappearing when the verse is spoken. Have I been oblivious to a whole different way of reading poetry in North America? Have I been stuck in some PBS ghetto where culture is carefully parceled for presentation to the pretentious and the inane? Oh, the joys of new discoveries.

Now I have the pleasant prospect, as well, of trying to understand enjambement theory. Thank you, twelveoone.

Thank you, for what?
-To sing as small birds in spring, with stutter
steps of wrens working lawns before taking wing.
Warbling words to the beat of a baby's heart-
dry gurgles. While you bleed out in tweed


It is so good to hear someone else indentify one of the problems of the the MFA programs and the prevailing trend in American poetry and general flattening of the words, emotion to match the scrawl on the page, techno-snyth poetry if you will.

Techically the accepted wisdom is the breaks are supposed to disappear. They don't quite. Robert Pinsky covers this is some detail in his The Sounds of Poetry and offers as a classic example:
William Carlos Williams 's
To A Poor Old Woman

munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her

what happens with the phrase/sentence "They taste good to her"?

 

[sophieloves]

Thank you, for what?
-To sing as small birds in spring, with stutter
steps of wrens working lawns before taking wing.
Warbling words to the beat of a baby's heart-
dry gurgles. While you bleed out in tweed


It is so good to hear someone else indentify one of the problems of the the MFA programs and the prevailing trend in American poetry and general flattening of the words, emotion to match the scrawl on the page, techno-snyth poetry if you will.

Techically the accepted wisdom is the breaks are supposed to disappear. They don't quite. Robert Pinsky covers this is some detail in his The Sounds of Poetry and offers as a classic example:
William Carlos Williams 's
To A Poor Old Woman

munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her

what happens with the phrase/sentence "They taste good to her"?

i hear it different each time, the stresses make it so in my head and i'd likely read it aloud that way

 

[lorencino]

Thank you, for what?
-To sing as small birds in spring, with stutter
steps of wrens working lawns before taking wing.
Warbling words to the beat of a baby's heart-
dry gurgles. While you bleed out in tweed

Thank you for starting a thread on enjambement soon after I realized I was going to have to put some effort into researching the topic. This thread will keep me going for a while with hardly any effort on my part.

It is so good to hear someone else indentify one of the problems of the the MFA programs and the prevailing trend in American poetry and general flattening of the words, emotion to match the scrawl on the page, techno-snyth poetry if you will.

Techically the accepted wisdom is the breaks are supposed to disappear. They don't quite. Robert Pinsky covers this is some detail in his The Sounds of Poetry and offers as a classic example:
William Carlos Williams 's
To A Poor Old Woman

munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her

what happens with the phrase/sentence "They taste good to her"?

I try to depict the cadences of my speech patterns should I be making a public reading of this poem. It is not necessarily representative of how any group speaks but I think it must at the very least represent some subgroup of English speaking South Africans and thus have elements of British English or colonial British English:

(The line breaks indicate where a slight pause occurs.
The bolded words show a stronger emphasis beat than would normally occur were poetic devices not at work. UPPERCASE BOLDED indicate dramatically stronger empasis
Italics indicate a greater than usual acceleration of the uttering speed of words that are unstressed, a drop in pitch and a fading away. I hope this is not getting too complicated.)

munching a plum on the street
a paper bag of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good to her
They taste
good to her

You can see it by the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums seeming to fill the air
They
taste
GOOD to her

Significantly all three "goods" at the beginning are stressed, but the final one is stressed more than is usual, simply because it is the third iteration of three and refuses to just plod along unchanged. Because it is about to receive a stronger emphasis there is a dramatic pause before the word is uttered. (Similar to skipping a heartbeat and then feeling a pounding return of the heart--as in when you drink too much coffee.)

Note that it is an already emphasized word that is given the extra stress. The fourth occurrence of the statement at the end has a completely changed pattern because it is the summation of what was being indicated by the repetition of the three lines, it transcends the gap between the third and fourth iteration and is exactly how I would have uttered the last line if it had followed the first three immediately. I've made it uppercase to suggest that it is emphasized even more than on its third appearance.

 

[sophieloves]

Thank you for starting a thread on enjambement soon after I realized I was going to have to put some effort into researching the topic. This thread will keep me going for a while with hardly any effort on my part.



I try to depict the cadences of my speech patterns should I be making a public reading of this poem. It is not necessarily representative of how any group speaks but I think it must at the very least represent some subgroup of English speaking South Africans and thus have elements of British English or colonial British English:

(The line breaks indicate where a slight pause occurs.
The bolded words show a stronger emphasis beat than would normally occur were poetic devices not at work. UPPERCASE BOLDED indicate dramatically stronger empasis
Italics indicate a greater than usual acceleration of the uttering speed of words that are unstressed, a drop in pitch and a fading away. I hope this is not getting too complicated.)

munching a plum on the street
a paper bag of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good to her
They taste
good to her

You can see it by the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums seeming to fill the air
They
taste
GOOD to her

Significantly all three "goods" at the beginning are stressed, but the final one is stressed more than is usual, simply because it is the third iteration of three and refuses to just plod along unchanged. Because it is about to receive a stronger emphasis there is a dramatic pause before the word is uttered. (Similar to skipping a heartbeat and then feeling a pounding return of the heart--as in when you drink too much coffee.)

Note that it is an already emphasized word that is given the extra stress. The fourth occurrence of the statement at the end has a completely changed pattern because it is the summation of what was being indicated by the repetition of the three lines, it transcends the gap between the third and fourth iteration and is exactly how I would have uttered the last line if it had followed the first three immediately. I've made it uppercase to suggest that it is emphasized even more than on its third appearance.

ok, that sounds almost exactly as i'm hearing it in my head but why did you change this part?

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her


there's that different emphasis in lines 2/3 that, for me, works better and makes it more than lines 1/2 simply a repetition

 

[lorencino]

ok, that sounds almost exactly as i'm hearing it in my head but why did you change this part?

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her


there's that different emphasis in lines 2/3 that, for me, works better and makes it more than lines 1/2 simply a repetition

I changed it to show how I hear it in my head.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure how the poet intended the lines in the original be read. I'm assuming its like this (If you follow my method outlined above for showing stress):

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

I appreciate that I may be completely misunderstanding the dynamics of these lines, but if my assumption is correct, I must conclude that the four lines amount to little more than empty gymnastics with words, and add nothing to the sense and meaning of the whole. It is as though the writer is providing a list of nuances and leaving it to the reader to make all the decisions even when the choices offered don't really belong in the same conversation as the rest of the poem. I don't actually see the point of breaking the lines like that, quite frankly.

I am hoping that if I am, in fact, missing something here, that someone will come to my rescue.