Enjambment
Poetry & prosodyThe sentence overflowing past the line's end, continuing into the next line without syntactic pause.
Example
"so much depends / upon // a red wheel / barrow"
Enjambment occurs when the sentence doesn't stop at the line's end and pours into the next: syntax strides over the metrical border. The line ending stays marked (by the eye, by rhyme if any), but meaning forces the passage — two logics superimpose and create tension.
That tension is expressive: enjambment can mimic momentum, overflow, falling, or suspend a word at the line's edge to charge it with expectation. Its short forms have proper names in French prosody: the rejet (the short element thrown to the next line's start) and contre-rejet (the short element anticipating at line's end). Routine in free verse, enjambment remains its main carving tool: choosing where to break the line is choosing what the eye isolates.
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