Enjambment

Enjambment is used in poetry to create a sense of tension. It occurs when the full sense of a line is interrupted because it is carried over to the next line. Sometimes enjambment leads to a change in meaning. In reading a phrase and then stopping at the end of a line, readers may gain a certain understanding of what the poet is trying to say. When the part carried over to the next line is read, the understanding changes.

Examples of enjambment in “Our Side” include the break in stanza 1. The poem begins “Disoriented, the newly dead try to turn back, / across the great expanse of water. But the distance,” and the second line stops. At this point, “the distance” appears to refer to the “great expanse of water.” This image is strong in the reader's mind. It suggests a sense of staring out at sea and...