Reading Poetry Aloud: Line Breaks and Enjambment

Learn when to pause at the end of a line of poetry and when to keep going.

A common mistake when reading poems aloud is stopping hard at the end of every line. Poets use two kinds of line endings. An end-stopped line finishes with punctuation, such as a period or comma, so you pause. An enjambed line runs on into the next line without punctuation, so the sentence continues and you should keep your voice moving, with at most a tiny breath. Read this original stanza: 'The wind kept searching through / the empty yard all night, / and found the gate, and swung it, / and let the morning in.

' 'Through' has no punctuation, so it flows straight into 'the empty yard. ' 'Night,' ends with a comma: pause briefly. Follow the punctuation, not the line edges. Poets often use enjambment to create surprise or tension, because the next line can shift the meaning. Reading it smoothly lets listeners hear both the sentence and the music of the lines.

• 1End-stopped lines end with punctuation: pause there
• 2Enjambed lines run on: keep your voice moving
• 3Follow punctuation, not the edge of the line