Question

What is the effect of enjambment in this excerpt from "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning?

That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;

It creates a sorrowful mood.



It conveys pain.



It enhances the shocking effect.



It introduces a pause.

Answer 1

The correct answer here is the third option.

Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the sentences do not end when the lines end but they spill over into the next line. Here browning by using this at first lulls us in, and later because of that creates the greater shocking effect as the twist occurs. This creates a much greater impact on the reader.

Answer 2

Correct answer:

It enhances the shocking effect.

The main function of enjambment in poetry is to allow an idea to continue beyond a single line to reinforce certain ideas within the same lines. In this poem the author uses the enjambment to surprise the reader by means of a shocking effect and maintains the strong rhythm during the poem.