Question

This is the whole poem

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awakening, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.
Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
'Twere better than the cold reality
Of waking life, to him whose heart must be

Which lines in this excerpt from the poem "Dreams" by Edgar Allan Poe use enjambment?

a. (Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!)
b. (My spirit not awakening, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.)
c. (Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,)
d. ('Twere better than the cold reality
Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,)

Answer 1

b. (My spirit not awakening, till the beam

Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.)

d. ('Twere better than the cold reality

Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,)

Step-by-step explanation:

Enjambment is a poetic device used by poets where the lines in the poem are continued into the next line without the use of any punctuation mark. There is no pause, with the meaning running over to the next line without any terminal punctuation.

The poem "Dreams" by Edgar Allen Poe uses this 'enjambment' in much of the whole poem. It can be seen in the lines in bold-

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!

My spirit not awakening, till the beam

Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.

Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,

'Twere better than the cold reality

Of waking life, to him whose heart must be

The enjambment can be specifically found in between "beam-of" and "reality-of".

Answer 2

b. (My spirit not awakening, till the beam

Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.)

d. ('Twere better than the cold reality

Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,)

Step-by-step explanation:

Both B and D are examples of enjambment. Enjambment refers to a situation in which the meaning of a sentence runs from one poetic line to the next. In other words, an idea is expressed throughout several verses without the use of terminal punctuation. In both of these options, the sentence runs over from one verse to the next without any terminal punctuation.