Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or thought from one line of poetry to the next without punctuation or a natural pause, creating momentum, tension, or surprise that AP Lit asks you to connect to a poem's meaning.
Enjambment happens when a line of poetry ends but the sentence keeps going. There's no period, comma, or natural pause at the line break, so your eye (and voice) spills over into the next line. The opposite is an end-stopped line, where punctuation tells you to stop right at the edge.
Think of it as the poet refusing to let you rest where you expect to. That refusal does work. Enjambment can speed the poem up, mimic breathlessness or momentum, isolate a word at the start of the next line so it lands harder, or create a brief double meaning where line one seems complete until line two changes it. On the AP Lit exam, spotting enjambment is step one. The points come from explaining what the spillover does to the poem's meaning, tone, or emotional effect.
Enjambment lives in AP Lit's poetry units (Units 2, 5, and 8), where the CED asks you to explain how a poem's structure, including line breaks and stanza divisions, contributes to its meaning. It's one of the most quotable structural moves a poet makes, which makes it perfect evidence for Free Response Question 1, the poetry analysis essay. A strong essay doesn't just say 'the poet uses enjambment.' It shows how the run-on lines create urgency, hesitation, or a turn in meaning, then ties that effect to the poem's larger interpretation. That move from device to function to meaning is exactly what the line-of-reasoning rubric rewards.
Caesura (Units 2, 5, 8)
Caesura is enjambment's mirror image. Enjambment removes the pause where you expect one (at the line's end), while caesura inserts a pause where you don't expect one (mid-line). Poets often use them together to control pacing, and noticing the push-pull between them gives you a ready-made structure argument.
Line Break (Units 2, 5, 8)
Every enjambment is a line break, but not every line break is enjambment. The line break is the physical cut; enjambment describes what happens when the syntax ignores that cut and keeps going. End-stopped lines break where the sentence breaks, so the two reinforce each other instead of clashing.
Meter (Units 2, 5, 8)
Meter sets the rhythmic expectation and enjambment disrupts it. When a sentence runs past a metrical line's end, the poem's formal pattern and its grammar are in tension, and that tension usually points at something the speaker feels but the form can't contain.
Stanza (Units 2, 5, 8)
Enjambment can also leap across stanza breaks, which is an even bolder move. A thought that refuses to stop at the white space between stanzas often signals a connection the poem wants you to feel before you consciously notice it.
Multiple-choice poetry sets regularly test enjambment indirectly. A stem might ask what effect the structure of lines 4-6 creates, or why a word gains emphasis, and the answer hinges on recognizing that the line is enjambed. On Free Response Question 1, the poetry analysis essay, enjambment is reliable evidence for any prompt about structure, tone, or the speaker's complex attitude. No released FRQ requires the term by name, but the rubric rewards exactly what enjambment analysis trains you to do: quote a specific line break, name the effect (momentum, suspense, emphasis on the spillover word), and link that effect to your thesis about the poem's meaning. Naming the device alone earns nothing; the commentary does.
Both control where a reader pauses, so they get mixed up constantly. Enjambment is the absence of a pause at the end of a line (the sentence runs over the break). Caesura is the presence of a pause in the middle of a line, usually marked by punctuation. Quick check: look at where the interruption happens. End of line with no punctuation means enjambment. Mid-line stop means caesura.
Enjambment is when a sentence or thought runs past the end of a poetic line into the next one without punctuation or a pause.
Its opposite is the end-stopped line, where punctuation makes you stop right at the line break.
Enjambment controls pacing and emphasis, often speeding the poem up or making the first word of the next line hit harder.
On FRQ 1, never just name enjambment; quote the specific line break and explain how the run-over creates an effect that supports your thesis.
Don't confuse it with caesura, which is a pause inside a line rather than a missing pause at the end of one.
Enjambment across a stanza break is an especially strong piece of evidence because it shows the poet deliberately overriding the poem's visual structure.
Enjambment is when a sentence or phrase continues from one line of poetry to the next without punctuation or a natural pause at the line break. The reader is pulled forward into the next line to complete the thought.
Enjambment removes the expected pause at the end of a line, while caesura adds an unexpected pause in the middle of a line, usually with punctuation like a period or dash. They're opposites in where they interrupt the reader.
No. A line break is just where the line physically ends, and every line of poetry has one. Enjambment only happens when the sentence keeps going past that break instead of stopping with it.
No, the rubric for FRQ 1 doesn't award points for naming devices. You earn points by quoting the enjambed lines as evidence and explaining how the run-over creates an effect (urgency, emphasis, double meaning) that supports your interpretation of the poem.
Common effects include faster pacing and momentum, suspense as you wait for the thought to finish, emphasis on the word that starts the next line, and brief ambiguity when a line seems complete until the next line changes its meaning. Always tie the effect you pick to the poem's tone or theme.
Connect this key term to the AP exam workflow: review the course, practice questions, and check related study tools.
Review units, study guides, and course resources.
Check this vocabulary in multiple-choice context.
Apply key concepts in written AP responses.
Estimate the exam score you are working toward.
Review the highest-yield facts before practice.
Put the full course together before test day.