Enjambment+--+Chaeri

Linda Pastan’s poem “Erosion” exemplifies how enjambment can be utilized to insert emphasis or stress on certain words in order to achieve the appropriate tone, rhythm and theme. The placement of her line breaks allow the readers to carefully pay attention to a certain word that they would normally not notice if the lines were end-stopped. When read out loud, such emphasis creates a specific rhythm and flow, which allows the readers to identify the ambience and the tone involved in the poem.

In this specific poem, “Erosion”, Pastan places the line breaks in the most unexpected places that it was personally difficult for me to read the poem out loud in a smooth manner. I was forced to slow down and even pause for a couple seconds in midst of my reading. When I finally finished, I wondered why the poem was written in such inconvenient manner. Then, I looked back at the title. Erosion. Erosion, when defined in a scientific manner is a process of being eroded by water, wind, or other natural agents. When I think of the word erosion, the words “rough”, “continuous” and “abrupt” come to my mind. What a perfect title for this specific poem! Pastan’s poem resembles the process of erosion because there are lots of line breaks in between certain words that makes the poem sound almost abrupt and sudden. The rhythm of the poem is rough and quick; In other words, the placement of the line breaks in this poem makes it sound and look as if the poem itself is getting eroded.

Furthermore, the abrupt line breaks and the use of enjambment accentuates the theme of the poem: the inevitable destruction of love and relationships. To me, this poem sounds sad and hopeless as if it was written after a break up of a long relationship. The delicacy of love and relationships is compared with the concept of erosion to illustrate that their love is gradually eroding away like a rock on a beach. In the very first stanza, the line break after the word “slowly” brings emphasis on the word that follows immediately after- undermined. The reader can therefore feel the helplessness and the dejected tone of the author. The line break after the word “slippage” is also effective in bringing about the meaning of the word. Put simply, the line breaks allow certain words (like slippage) to come to action. Because there is a period and a line break after “slippage”, it almost sounds as if something (in this case, love) just suddenly slipped out unexpectedly. The ellipsis that follows after the phrases “by grain” and “inch by inch” also helps achieve such dramatic effect with much success. If there was no line break in between and was written in a normal way where the lines are end-stopped, it would sound completely different and the suspense that we felt when there was enjambment would be missing. The use of enjambment, therefore emphasizes on the hopelessness of the poem and make the theme more conspicuous to the reader.

Jennifer Chaeri I think your second paragraph is really interesting. I thought the line breaks served to slow down the reader and put emphasis on certain words, but after reading your essay I think your idea that the line breaks serve to resemble the "rough" and "abrupt" process of erosion works well too. Also, I wrote about how the erosion represents the eventual destruction of life. The idea that it is about love..nice! :D