Final answer:
Blank verse lends a natural rhythm and meditative voice to poetry, while enjambment creates complexity and can add suspense or emphasis. Enjambment also guides readers through the flow of the poem, sometimes creating surprise or new meaning between lines.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of blank verse and enjambment in poetry has distinctive impacts on a poem's delivery and thematic expression. Blank verse, consisting of unrhymed iambic pentameter, contributes to a poem’s natural rhythm and allows for the creation of a meditative voice.
It often mimics the natural cadences of English speech, thereby making the poem sound more conversational or reflective. For instance, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, blank verse provides a grand and epic quality to the poem, fitting for its lofty subject matter.
On the other hand, enjambment, the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line or stanza, introduces complexity and can generate suspense or emphasis on particular words or ideas. LibreTexts explains that enjambment allows poets to play with the poem's prosody—its rhythm and sound patterns—to produce specific effects and guide the reader’s response.
This becomes especially clear in Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "We Real Cool," where enjambment emphasizes the collective identity of the speakers and reflects the theme of rebellion.
Lastly, enjambment challenges readers by forcing them to consider how one line flows into the next, often creating new meanings or surprising images. In James Wright's "A Blessing," the surprise created by the enjambment at the end of the poem shifts the reader's perspective, revealing an unexpected image or thought.