This month Margaret Simon posed our Inklings challenge. She asked us to ” Write a poem on any topic using enjambment,” and offered Poetry Foundation’s definition: “The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped.”
I’m pretty sure there’s a bit more to it than that!
I woke this morning, knowing I needed to post, and wishing I’d had more time to consider the challenge amidst the wind-up to school. Apparently my sleep-mind was pondering too, as I woke with this phrase in mind, structured just like this:
Night
falls
into
dawn as
dreams
slip
away
©Molly Hogan
Isn’t it funny how your brain keeps working on something, even while you’re sleeping!?
With a day off (Woot!), I had time to ponder enjambment a bit more, to consider its nuances, and do a bit of research. I was thinking a lot about why and how poets use enjambment. So, I read definitions, mentor poems and explanations. To sum up what I found, and what you probably already know, enjambment can increase the pace or drama of a piece, it can merge ideas, play with mood and theme, and generally pulls the reader along. It can complicate, explain or clarify. When used skillfully, it adds so many layers!
Check out the powerful use of enjambment in the first part of “Homeland Security” by Geoffrey Brock:
The four am cries
of my son worm
through the double
foam of earplugs
and diazepam.
…
I mean…wow! The first time I read this poem, my brain was constantly playing catch up in the most delightful way! And speaking of delights, while I was exploring the rabbit hole of all things enjambed, I came across Diane Mayr’s brilliant Poetry Friday from 2013 entitled “The Secret Society of Enjambment.” Such fun!
I wish I could top that one, but even though I had great fun exploring enjambment, and marveling at how poets use it to great effect, I ended up sticking with a quick response I’d written earlier in the month. It’s rooted in how enjambment impacts me when I’m reading aloud. Here it is:
Straddling the Lines
I’m not
sure I’m a fan
of enjamb-
ment
It feels a
bit unfair leaving
the reader
hanging
in
the
air
or somewhere teetering at
the end of
a line
unsure whether to
stop
or read on with
flow or to go
no
further.
©Molly Hogan
To see what the other Inklings did with this challenge, click on their links:
Heidi Mordhorst
Catherine Flynn
Margaret Simon
Linda Mitchell
Mary Lee Hahn
This week’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Ramona at her blog, Pleasures from the Page.
Nix the comfort zone 
I feel a challenge is success when it is met with such intense study. A win!
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Thanks for a great challenge. I’m glad I could dig in a bit deeper on a day off 🙂
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This is rather an enticing challenge. I think I need to do a Molly, and throw myself into further study. (Perfect use of the hyphen in your poem, Molly.)
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Thanks, Kat! It was interesting to realize how much I use enjambment without really thinking about it–maybe being more conscious of its potential, and deliberate with its use, will be a side benefit of this challenge.
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You are teaching me so much. Thank you! I think the word that brings it home for me is, “pacing.” It’s still a slippery skill that I aim to keep practicing. I do love your first few lines about night falling…wonderful beginning.
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Thanks. So often I wake with phrases in mind, but they all too often drift away.
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Thanks, Molly, for throwing us back to Diane’s jolly/serious post, and for sticking with it. I’m sure your draft from last Sunday helped my last-minute response yesterday morning. It all helps me think of flow not as a right but a gift, a privilege to be cherished.
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I really like how this challenge made me think about something I was already doing and recognize I would benefit from considering how I use it more consciously.
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I love that you wrote ABOUT enjambment WITH enjambment!!
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Edited to add: Your title! Perfection!!
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Aw, thanks! You know how much that means to me! lol 🙂
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There it is: human enjambment (your first poem), especially when you wake thinking about your dreams
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“Human enjambment” –love that idea!
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Molly, you really captured enjambment in your poem, as Diane did in the Old McDonald spinoff. I like that longer line “teetering” out in your poem. Between yours and Diane’s posts, I learned a lot about enjambment. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you! It was such a delight to stumble onto Diane’s post 🙂
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You had me at the first poem!!! Yes! I had an agent (not mine) tell me about one of my books “a link break does not a poem make.” Ugh. It was clear I still needed to work on that (and always still do).
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Ouch! That sounds like an uncomfortable memory. 😦 I like how enjambment is something we all use, but something we can all (probably) improve upon.
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Perfect! “or somewhere teetering at” You certainly captured the sensation of reading enjambment. Thank you for sharing your research.
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Thanks! It struck me when I was working on the challenge how much I like enjambment when reading to myself, but struggle with it when reading aloud.
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Well done, Molly! I’m impressed at your research in the midst of school starting. I love both your poems and agree with Mary Lee that you nailed the title to the second one.
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Thanks, Catherine! The research only happened because I had no school on Friday 🙂 I hope your first week was a win! I can’t wait to hear about it!
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Great title! And I love the word “teetering.” Thinking about enjambment/where to put line breaks is always a big deal for me. My poem that Janice shares today had various iterations before I settled on a final form.
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Thanks, Tabatha. Titles are almost always a huge struggle for me, but this one just popped into my head 🙂 That is unfortunately quite rare, but always quite welcome! I’ll have to pop over and check out your poem.
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Love the internal rhyme in “Straddling the Lines.” You and others have given us a lot to think about with your exercises in enjambment!
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Thanks, Joyce. It was a fun one to write. I’ll definitely be thinking a lot more consciously about enjambment in the future!
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Ah Molly
What
A wonderful
Post, filled
With en
Jam
Ment treasures of
yours and Diane’s
💙all
Thanks!
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Great enjambed comment, Michelle! Thanks!
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