Enjambment

[billy]

So yes, the accusations are true: enjambment DOES interrupt the flow of a poem for the reader. It's supposed to -- and it's just as important to consider the effects of enjambment in a piece of free verse as formal poetry. Are you breaking your lines where you do for a reason, or is it just arbitrary? The poetic line is a powerful tool, the strongest unit you have in your poem -- don't waste it.

for me the interruption you speak of (in the 1st 2 lines) are intended, and can usually be seen as such. that said; i see lots of poems where it looks like the poet has over worked the enjambment to such an extent that it begins to look like bird shit style syntax. (no disrespect to anyone, i'm generalising here) often if they just went with the flow the endjambs would usually work well. but of course we all want to be poets so we monkey around a bit and smile to ourselves thing; "fuck me, that was clever" when in fact they do want fucking but not because they're enjambment was clever; more so the opposite, and they need to take a step back and read the piece out loud. i think enjambment can make or break a poem, for me it's often the latter because being clever doesn't always equate with being good. jmo

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me extremely bad, i thought this was in poetry discussion sorry about that leanne. and good post (feel free to delete me if it doesn't fit in the thread)