A poetic technique where a sentence or phrase runs over from one line of verse into the next without a pause or punctuation mark. This creates momentum and can emphasize certain words or ideas by positioning them at line breaks.
From French 'enjamber' meaning 'to stride over' or 'to encroach,' literally 'to put one's leg across.' The term entered English poetry criticism in the 19th century to describe this flowing technique that 'steps over' line boundaries.
This technique turns line breaks into musical instruments! Poets use enjambment to control rhythm and surprise—the word hanging at a line's end gets extra emphasis, like a drumbeat, while the flowing sentence creates forward momentum that mirrors natural speech patterns.
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