Interrelation of characteristics of enjambement in the lyrics by John Greenleaf Whittier devoted to the struggle for Civil rights

The paper discusses one of the most vivid features of author’s individual style in poetry – enjambement. The investigation is focused on the characteristics of this estrangement device in the lyrics by John Greenleaf Whittier devoted to the struggle for Civil rights and abolition of slavery. In the three traditionally singled out types of enjambement the tightness of syntactic links, which are divided by the pause between the lines, and the distance between the words separated in the enjambement are measured. The aim of the study – to establish the interrelation between the characteristics of enjambement and reveal the tendencies in its structure – is achieved with the help of correlation analysis (Cole coefficient). The obtained results show both positive interrelation of features and the presence of negative coefficients limiting the combinability of characteristics. Clusters of correlations were singled out – groups of interrelated characteristics which point at the existence of models in the use of enjambement, i.e. the author does not make a choice of separate features but chooses between whole sets of features. Compensation is the major tendency: the poet limits the emotional charge of enjambements by avoiding joint use of characteristics with great information load.