End Stops and Enjambment in Poetry: Definitions

and Examples
End-stops allow readers to pause at each line break, making them ideal for highly structured poems with
regular rhythm and rhyme schemes.

What Is an End-Stop (or End-Stopped Line) in Poetry?

In poetry, an end-stop refers to a pause at the end of a poetic line. An end-stop can be marked by a period
(full stop), comma, semicolon, or other punctuation denoting the end of a complete phrase or cause, or it
can simply be the logical end of a complete thought. End-stops allow the reader to pause at each line
break, which makes them ideal for highly structured poems with regular rhythm and rhyme schemes.

2 Examples of End Stop in Poetry

It’s not hard to find examples of end-stopped poetry: The most common and familiar way to end a line of
poetry is with a pause, often denoted by a punctuation mark. Closely examining end-stopped poetry can
help you understand its uses.

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” is a great example of end-stopped poetry. Written in iambic
pentameter, the poem begins with a question, and each subsequent line ends with a colon, comma, or
semicolon, until the last line, which ends with a full stop. The end-stops emphasize the regular structure of
this famous sonnet:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course
untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his
shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

This excerpt from Keats’s “Endymion” features both end-stopped lines and enjambment:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: End-stopped

Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep Enjambed
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
 Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet
breathing. Enjambed
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth, End-stopped
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth Enjambed
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, End-stopped
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways Enjambed
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, End-stopped
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall Enjambed
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, End-stopped
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils Enjambed
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake, End-stopped
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms Enjambed
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read: End-stopped
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

What Is Enjambment?

Enjambment (pronounced en-JAM-ment), in contrast to an end-stop, is when the end of a phrase extends
past the end of a line. The definition of “enjambment” in French is “to step over.” In poetry, this means
that a thought “steps over” the end of a line and into the beginning of the next line, with no punctuation,
so that the reader must read through the line break quickly to reach the conclusion of the thought. You can
think of enjambment as the opposite of an end-stop. Whereas end-stops are popular with more structured
poetry, enjambment is more common in free verse.

2 Examples of Enjambment in Poetry

In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare makes an exception to his usual end-stopped lines with this more
colloquial speech from Hermione:

There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favourable. Good my lords,

I am not prone to weeping, as our sex

Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities: but I have
That honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown: beseech you all, my lords,

With thoughts so qualified as your charities

 Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so
The king's will be perform'd!

This excerpt from the beginning of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is a famous example of enjambment, but it
also includes end-stopped lines. The long sentences and enjambment allow for end rhyme that creates a
strong sense of rhythm in this poem:

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.

Why Is Enjambment Used in Poetry?

Poetry is a structured literary form, with patterns and rhythms that dictate the flow of verses. Lineation in
poetry is how lines are divided and where they end in relation to a clause or thought. Having a line break at
the end of a phrase or complete thought is a regular and expected pattern in poetry. Poets subvert this
expectation by using a technique called enjambment. Enjambment breaks with our expectations of where a
line should end, creating a different feel to a poem.

By allowing a thought to overflow across lines, enjambment creates fluidity and brings a prose -like quality
to poetry.

Poets use literary devices like enjambment to

• Add complexity. Enjambment builds a more complex narrative within a poem by fleshing out a thought
instead of confining it to one line.

• Create tension. Enjambment builds the drama in a poem. The end of the first line isn’t the end of a
thought but rather a cliffhanger, forcing the reader to keep moving forward to find out what happens
next. It delivers a resolution in the second line, or the third line, depending on the length of
enjambment.

• Build momentum. Enjambment moves seamlessly through line breaks where there is usually a forced
pause in poetry. The brain wants to move quickly on to read the conclusion of the sentence, creating a
faster pace and a momentum. It gives a poem a flow and energy.

• Create an element of surprise. In some instances, enjambment is used as a plot twist technique,
shifting to a conflicting idea from one line to the next, creating an element of surprise.

• Play with syntax. Words in an enjambed poetic line are deliberately placed. A word used at the end of
the line—where a pause occurs but the thought continues—is meant to be emphasized.
 • Complement performance. Enjambment was often used in the poetic dialogue in Shakespeare’s plays.
The technique allows a character to flow with a thought instead of clunky, end-stopped lines that can
disrupt the momentum of the performance.

Some Examples:

Here are examples that show how different poets have used enjambment. Read them aloud to hear the
rhythm and where the poets place the emphasis in each line.

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)

April is the cruelest 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.
I
n his 434-line narrative poem The Waste Land, T.S. Elliot uses enjambment to evoke the momentum of the
changing seasons. Eliot places commas in the middle of the lines to builds tension as the earth churns,
ending most lines with verbs to describe and emphasize the metamorphosis taking place.

John Keats, Endymion (1818)

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Enjambed lines can take full advantage of rhyme schemes as seen in Keats’s Endymion. This technique of
mixing enjambment with rhyme gives the illusion that there is closure after every second line, and mimics
an open couplet — a two-line stanza that contains a single thought — but the enjambment pushes through
and carries on.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1609)

To be, or not to be—that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die- to sleep.
To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is written for the stage. Enjambment is a literary device used to instruct the delivery
of lines projected to an audience. In this soliloquy, as Hamlet prepares to avenge his father’s murder, the
rhythm of enjambment mirrors his pensive train of thought as he processes and reflects on the meaning of
life.