[See Versification.] The term used to describe the run-on of a syntactical unit from one line to the next, or from one half-line (hemistich) to the next. In other words, the juncture at the end of the line, or at the caesura, does not coincide with a natural syntactical break but, rather, interrupts the syntactical unit and compels it to straddle the line-ending or caesura:Et, pour sa voix, lointaine, et calme, et grave, elle a L'inflexion des voix chères qui se sont tues.
These lines from Verlaine's ‘Mon rêve familier’ have both an end-of-line enjambement, and an end-of-hemistich enjambement:L'inflexion des voix | | chères qui se sont tues. (4 + 2 + 1 + 5)
Lines with enjambement at the caesura are often more comfortably read as trimètres:L'inflexion | des voix chè | res qui se sont tues. (4 + 3 + 5)
[Clive Scott]
