Talk:Enjambment

Clarity
The definition's insistence on terminal punctuation is both old-fashioned (ironically) and wrong. Poets can do away with punctuation the same as they may with capitalization but a poem written in lines without any punctuation may still be enjambed or end-stopped. It's about the syntax. Does the clause *straddle" the line break? If the line break interrupts a unit of syntax, the line is enjambed, punctuation be damned. And if the line ends where the syntax-unit also ends, the line is end-stopped. This is true even if the poem was never written down--even ancient works recited from memory will exhibit end-stopping and enjambment. These terms are not about periods or semicolons, they're about rhythm and the way that sentence-rhythm plays across the lines. 66.211.206.7 (talk) 17:20, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Spelling
You might like the linguistic root, but in contemporary criticism, nobody in the US, and almost nobody in the UK, uses the French spelling anymore. You're really leading students astray if you indicate otherwise.MaggieT 19:32, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Seen as the word comes directly from the French enjambement, I have moved this page. Although my dictionary lists "enjambment" as an alternative spelling, I see no reason to drop the "e". &mdash;Wereon 12:16, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm accustomed to seeing 'enjambment', but I like your reasoning. I do, however, think it appropriate to use the title spelling in the article proper. ;-) -- Perey 07:52, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)


 * The Oxford English, American Heritage and Merriam-Webster Dictionaries all list enjambment as the primary spelling. &mdash; Miles&larr;&#9742; 06:30, 7 March 2006 (UTC)


 * However, the 2004 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary lists enjambement with an e as the primary spelling. This might be taken to indicate that at the very least, this alternative spelling should be mentioned in the article as a valid English variant. 86.178.164.87 (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 18:40, 18 January 2010 (UTC).


 * Also, in case anyone is wondering whether the above preference is specific to that particular book, it is not: the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992) gives enjambement as the British spelling, enjambment as American. The 1996 edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage gives enjambement as the headword but expresses no preference between the two spellings; it simply says that those who pronounce it the French way should spell it with the 'e', and those who pronounce it as if it were English should omit the 'e'. 86.178.164.87 (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 18:47, 18 January 2010 (UTC).

I've always used "enjambement." While that doesn't matter insomuch as it's just me, everyone with whom I've had poetic discourse also uses "enjambement." It is unequivocally valid, and this argument isn't much different from removing the spelling of "colour" from the English wikipedia, since "enjambement" is used in Britain. Yalk (talk) 08:25, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

That's a funny word!

Miles is absolutely right!!! Using an obsolete spelling because it happens to strike the fancy of a couple people here is just plain stupid. Should we use the French roots for all English words? Come on! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.213.117.15 (talk • contribs) 13:45, 2 May 2006. That was meMaggieTh65.213.117.15 18:08, 4 May 2006 (UTC)--sorry about the signature!65.213.117.15 18:07, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I find your anti French attitudes completely preposterous, xenophobic and to be perfectly honest I am shamed that a fellow English speaker would show such bigotry towards a people just because they find that their language is overused in English. English is based off of French for goodness sake Therealfactualfacts (talk) 11:42, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Candida
surely one shouldn't translate "candida" as "white"; Catullus wasn't making a racial observation, but must have meant "candida" in the sense of "shining", "fresh-faced", or the like.

example
This is enjambment too, right?

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers.

Thought it might be nice to have more non-Shakespearean examples... --Gargletheape 10:43, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that's an example of enjambement. Not good or particularly euphonic enjambement, but I agree there should be more contemporary examples since enjambement is used in the vast majority of our generation's poetry. Not to good effect, sadly. Yalk (talk) 08:26, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

That's interesting that you do not consider that "good... enjambement," as it is from a famous poem. Now, not that I'm disagreeing with you, but what makes it NOT GOOD? This would help in my understanding. And yes, it would be VERY good to have more modern examples. This may help to clarify things. Gingermint (talk) 05:07, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

—And no Milton? Milton is Mister Enjambment: "Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit / Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste," meaning at first the result of the disobedience before the tree-fruit that caused the disobedience. --Akhenaten0 (talk) 23:07, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

It's enough to make one gringe, That there's no word to rhyme with orange :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.242.242.135 (talk) 10:57, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

faulty examples
the first example given (the lines of pope) are not enjambement, regardless of the effect the second line has on the gloss on breast.

and the end-stop example from r&j in fact features enjambement between lines 1 and 2: a glooming peace this morning with it brings/the sun. the fact that the continuation of line 2 denies that reading does not mean it isn't there initially. it should also be noted that the full stop at the end of line 1 is a modern editorial change, both the quartos and the folio have a comma instead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.198.201.127 (talk) 11:41, 15 April 2013 (UTC)


 * I agree. I fail to see where Pope features an enjambement. Both lines are syntactically self-contained; the line break does not break any syntactic unit or clause at all: it coincides perfectly with a syntactic break. I've commented the Pope example out. (I might add that the IP was completely correct to remove "straight": what about bisexual men, for starters?) --Florian Blaschke (talk) 13:00, 14 November 2013 (UTC)