How does enjambment affect the meaning and movement of a poem?

In prosody, enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or phrase beyond the end of a line of verse, meaning the grammatical sense does not conclude at the line break.12

Impact on Movement and Meaning

By allowing a sentence to "run over" into the next line, enjambment disrupts the natural pause that typically occurs at the end of a line. This technique creates a sense of forward momentum, as the reader is compelled to move quickly to the next line to complete the thought.12

In contrast to an end stop—where a grammatical pause coincides with the end of the line—enjambment creates tension by separating closely related words across line breaks. This can emphasize specific words, create rhythmic complexity, or mirror the fluidity of thought and speech within the poem. For example, in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, enjambment helps sustain the poem's evocative, flowing imagery by bridging lines with active, participle-heavy phrasing.132