A line that continues without pause into the next line.

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Multiple Choice

A line that continues without pause into the next line.

Enjambment describes when a line’s meaning spills over into the next line without a pause. The sentence or thought continues beyond the line break, so you don’t encounter a complete stop at the end of the line. This creates a sense of momentum as the reader moves into the following line. This differs from a caesura, which is a deliberate pause within a single line—often marked by punctuation—that interrupts the rhythm rather than carrying the sense forward. A stanza is simply a grouped set of lines, like a paragraph in poetry, and a couplet is two consecutive rhyming lines that form a unit. The situation described—continuing the sense from one line into the next—is exactly enjambment.

Enjambment describes when a line’s meaning spills over into the next line without a pause. The sentence or thought continues beyond the line break, so you don’t encounter a complete stop at the end of the line. This creates a sense of momentum as the reader moves into the following line.

This differs from a caesura, which is a deliberate pause within a single line—often marked by punctuation—that interrupts the rhythm rather than carrying the sense forward. A stanza is simply a grouped set of lines, like a paragraph in poetry, and a couplet is two consecutive rhyming lines that form a unit. The situation described—continuing the sense from one line into the next—is exactly enjambment.

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