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Today before us, we have a very very sensitive topic to trash. It's sensitive because there's no simple way of knowing how to punctuate poetry without making at least one error after the first few edits.
So the question is; What are enjambments?
ANSWER 1: Carrying a sentence to the next line.
ANSWER 2: Is the breaking of line in a poem without using complete sentences
RESPONSE: Your answer was complete up until you added "...without.... ".
ANSWER 3: It is the fact of a sentence continuing beyond the end of a line of poetry
ANSWER 4: When you break of a line and take the rest to the next line.
RESPONSE: Correct too.
Okay, moving on: Enjambment is a technique in poetry whereby a sentence is carried over to the next line without pause.
Mark "without a pause ".
This topic is supposed to capture capitalization too but we didn't want to make the topic longer than necessary. Capitalization because enjambment cuts across lines, punctuation and capitalization
How? Here it is. Consider these forms of enjambments;
Form 1
Books from nooks
Of brooks she took And made me look,
From a mad mood
In a hard hood
She took and made me look.
FORM 2
Books from nooks of brooks she took and made me look,
From a mad mood in a hard hood, she made me good.
Form 3
Books from nooks of brooks she took and made me look,
From a mad mood in a hard hood
she made me good.
Form 4.
Books from nooks of brook she took
and made me look,
From a mad mood in
a hard hood she made me good.
Which of those forms do you consider having a near perfect enjambments or line breaks?
Let's analyse the 4 forms
The problem with form 1 is capitalization
When using line breakers or enjambment, the enjambed line (second line ) should always begin with a small letter.
Is there any difference between forms 2 and 3?
Punctuation
The second form's fault is the punctuation. You don't punctuate the first line that is supposed to be continued into the next one.
Even if you start the second line with a small letter but used a punctuation to "pause " the flow, then it's no longer a healthy enjambment.
Punctuations are not the only "pausers " of a line. Cadence does that. The rhythmic flow.
So even though the Form 3 appears to be the best in terms of structure (healthier than Forms 1 and 2), we readily can find out that the 2nd and 4th lines are independent clauses. And as such they don't REALLY continue lines 1 and 3.
Traditionally, that should be correct.
In fact, traditionally, all the first words of each line should begin with a block letter.
However, in contemporary poetry, you'd have to break your lines in such a way that both punctuations and rhythmic stops won't come between the enjambed lines. Best bets should be behind those points where joiners and binders appear. I.e immediately after "transitional markers, prepositions and conjunctions".
What do we notice in Form 4?
The lines enjambed are invariably shoved into the next line. However, the first enjambment of the 4th Form isn't correct
Why?
The second line by our reckoning should have begun immediately after "of" or afte "and". That's to ensure that the first line introduces the second just the same way the second enjambment did.
Let's flow to punctuations immediately.
Punctuations naturally are visual.
This is because in a spoken word piece, you won't need to be perfect as regards punctuations for it to fly.
Lest I forget, this class is primarily meant for page poets as both enjambment and punctuation are more like landmarks of form or structure of a page poem.
We use line breakers to trim the lines into shape while we use punctuations to dictate the flow.
As poetry is often a collection of phrases neatly strung together, punctuation may be guesswork at best. In single word lines it becomes mostly unnecessary, if not intrusive.
The ways in which we read punctuation may differ significantly from reader to reader.
When I am reading a poem, I read the punctuation as a part of the words, inseparable when used well to the benefit of the piece (and highly irritating when it serves to impede the poem).
Some fashionable writers these days seem to think it's de rigueur to leave it out altogether. For me, apart from a few wasteful commas most punctuation is still necessary.
Most budding poets just to be "on the safe side " totally avoid punctuations and when you ask 'why?', they'll say they got some poetic license from a Cambridge shop.
It's true that not all lines are supposed to be punctuated but we ought to know that punctuations dictate the flow and as such must not even, only appear at the end of a line but could appear within a line. Check Caesura.
In most cases, it's the comma or semicolon that appears in-between a line.
Let's highlight the most used and abused punctuations. I'm sure we already know that two are the most abused. Those two are the period and the comma. So let's start with them.
The Period
This is easily the most understandable punctuation mark. It creates a full-stop wherever it is used in a work of poetry and should be used to the effect of separating thoughts that are meant to be digested one at a time.
I’ve seen it commonly used at the end of a given stanza to wrap up that stanzas central thought.
This is more rampant in a poem that uses enjambment all through a verse... Mesioye and Aremu Adams' poems are good examples.
But this doesn't mean that if a verse hasn't ended the period shouldn't appear.
Periods can also be the most distracting punctuation mark when used improperly.
The Comma
This from my observations is the most abused punctuation ever since Adam and Eve knew they were naked.
They are often used at the ends of lines and even then not always well. This doesn't mean they can't appear in-between the lines. Remember Caesura and remember what we said about punctuations dictating the flow in poetry.
When a comma is used at the end of a line, it should be due to the fact that the reader is not meant to directly continue on to the following line. In essence, the comma provides a very brief pause, a yield sign, if you will, so that the reader will check their speed and not proceed too quickly.
Commas should serve to separate thoughts that may be related but aren’t directly so.
The Semicolon
Another most abused punctuation is the semicolon. In fact I remember a friend confessing to me that whenever he's confused as regards whether to use comma or a period, he'll just settle for "that punctuation that has both comma and fullstop "...I.e the semicolon 😂😂😂😂.
In prose, the semi-colon traditionally separates two related sentences (who may share a single subject) in order to prevent a run-on or extended sentence. In poetry, this issue is not as common and the punctuation mark is the awkward teenager of the bunch.
When reading poetry, I think of the semi-colon as a cautionary pause. Not a full-stop but something that signifies a distinct separation with the following thoughts or lines. To some degree it almost takes on the opposite role that it has in prose writing but I also do notalways feel this is the case.
The semi-colon is a subjective read for me and the way I handle it does change from time to time. This makes for a terrible discussion point, I know, but the semi-colon brings up mixed feelings on its true interpretation for me.
Exclamation mark
Aother punctuation that has seen a little more than abuse is the exclamation mark.
Some poets most times even double or triple it at the end of a line they suspect should be shouted.
You see them say:
Come! Come away, you jabroni!!!!!!
Poetry isn't a graphic design where you design using double or three exclamation marks.
Exclamation marks should be used sparingly as well. It would become highly irritating very fast if every single line in a poem ended with an exclamation mark (although there are a few poems that may get away with this), especially if the lines were short.
Oh!” or other brief emotional outburst.
They do signify a pause of sorts but the pause is so fleeting due to the emotion in tone that the reader progresses on with nary a thought to the impediment.
Especially when used effectively exclamations can add a deeper level of significance to a line than previously would have been present. They may also add merriment or amplify a statement intended to hold its key meaning through irony or sarcasm.
Sparingly is one of the best uses for the Exclamation Mark!
Oh, Ah, My God.... these are mostly the kind of phrases that should introduce the exclamation marks.
There's a reason it's called an EXCLAMATION mark.
However, try not to attach the exclamation mark immediately after the exclamation when you know the line ought to continue.
Don't do this
Oh! That relief shall visit these thresholds.
Instead say:
Oh, that relief shall visit these thresholds!
Invariably, don't continue a line after a period, exclamation mark or a question mark.
Poetic license allows you to break this rule mentioned above but I'll advice you to use your poetic license in this regard when writing for yourself but when it's meant for a competition, don't try that rough play.
This brings us to the Question Mark.
There's hardly any good poet who doesn't know how to use this. Maybe because the name is self explanatory. It appears at the end of a line that is a question.
However, there are ways its use is still abused. Like we've mentioned before, don't continue a line after a question mark. Make sure it's the last thing after a question.
Make sure the next word after it begins with a block letter and in the next line.
Make sure you don't hurriedly attach it to a line when you know the line with the question continues in the next line after it.
E.g
When shall my people know?
That no one is free of needs.
❌❌❌❌❌
Totally wrong
I see this error almost everyday
Since the question continues in the next line "that " should have started with a small letter and then then the question mark ought to have appeared after "needs " and not after "know ".
Other punctuations we should look up their proper use is the colon, the hyphen, the quotation marks.
I know deep down, you wanna ask if it means all lines must end with a punctuation? The answer is, 'no'. This brings us to the last note:
NO PUNCTUATION
Not using punctuation on a line end or in an entire poem often speaks to me of a fast pace and limited pauses. Sometimes a different tempo emerges via word choice but overall if you don’t have punctuation on a line or in a poem, I will generally assume you want me to read each line straight through without pause or stopping for breath.
I think this is the best use of no punctuation. Sometimes a piece benefits from having very little or none, and sometimes they suffer. The context, word choice, and presentation matter greatly to the effect of how punctuation will enhance or hinder a given poem. Use this “punctuation” wisely (see I found an example for using quotes on a single word!).
The end of today's lecture
Questions please
QUESTION 1: Does both necessarily have to be for page poets??.
ANSWER: No,
But from my reckoning, the only reason why punctuation has to be recognized in a spoken word piece is so as to know how each line flows.
ALL QUESTIONS whether rhetorical or not should end with a question mark.
QUESTION 2: What will you say about some poets who don't like punctuating their piece because they don't like to?
ANSWER: That they don't like to doesn't make them right. In a competition, they'll be lucky to have their works read even.
QUESTION 3: Even if you start the second line with a small letter but used a punctuation to "pause " the flow, then it's no longer a healthy enjambment.
Why that???
ANSWER: Because once you punctuate a line, there's a pause and when there's a pause, there's no longer a run-on-line or enjambment. It's like asking me why is it that whenever there's light darkness disappears?
QUESTION 4: If one uses a comma, should the next line begin with upper case or lower case?
ANSWER: Upper case begins every new line that isn't an enjambed line.
QUESTION 5: Beside a comma can one break a sentence by using capitalization?
Now, that question means you didn't understand the lecture even a comma shouldn't be used to break a line if it's an enjambment you're employing.
Like I mentioned before, the use of a punctuation at the end of a line means the next line ought to be an independent clause at least, should start with a block letter and shouldn't be regarded as an enjambed line.
The presence of any kind of punctuation at the end of a line is the absence of enjambment in the following line.
Before I sign off, may I also add that not all line-breaks are enjambments. Using our examples earlier, Form 3 is an "end-stop" whereas the second part of the 4th form is the "enjambed line."
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Thanks for your audience.
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