Mothers

Enjambment is the continuation of a thought from one line to the next, or from one stanza to the next without the use of end stop punctuation (as a comma or period provides). Reasons to use enjambment include making multiple meanings possible from one line or stanza to the next; to control or impact the speed of the poem; to create a feeling of surprise; to emphasis sound and sometimes rhyme; and to make use of the page. In “Mothers,” enjambment maintains and changes the pacing of the poem, as well as delivering several surprises.

After “we kissed” (Line 2), the speaker and her mother “exchanged pleasantries” (Line 3). So far, so ordinary—until the reader drops down into “and unpleasantries” (Line 4), which leads to “pulled a warm / comforting silence around” (Lines 4-5), and finally to “us and read separate books” (Line 6). Unpleasantries and warm is an odd combination. Is the lack of sound a comfort or suffocating? What is it surrounding? And why does Giovanni place us and separate on the same line? Why didn’t she just put the words together that seem to go together, instead of splitting them up and putting them on different lines? One thought is that through the use of enjambment, Giovanni has made way for multiple interpretations of a single, superficially ordinary scene. In this poem, the unpleasant sits on the same line as the “warm” (Line 4), and the concept of “us” (Line 6) must share space the idea of “separate” (Line 6). These intentional uses of word placement and enjambment create an inborn tension from the outset of the poem.

Elsewhere, enjambment is effectively used to give the reader a place to stop and pause for a moment before heading into another line or stanza. Before readers arrive at the mother “sitting on a chair” (Line 17)—arguably the main focus of attention—they are with the small child, who may have “wet / the bed” (Lines 15-16). The short line, “the bed” (Line 16), gives the reader a place to rest and briefly consider the child.