Anacoluthon
Quick answer: Anacoluthon is a deliberate break in a sentence's grammar, where the syntax starts one way and swerves to another. Definition, examples and craft advice.
Anacoluthon is a sudden break in the grammatical flow of a sentence, where the syntax sets off in one direction and swerves into another that does not follow from the start. 'The thing about my brother, and I have tried, believe me, where was I' is anacoluthon: the opening structure is abandoned mid-stream and never completed. The Greek name means 'not following'.
Used by accident, it is simply a broken sentence. Used on purpose, it is one of the most lifelike devices available to a poet, because real minds under pressure talk exactly this way. Grief, panic, evasion and overwhelming memory all derail syntax, and a controlled derailment on the page lets readers watch a mind lose its footing in real time.
How It Works
A sentence creates expectations: a subject predicts a verb, a 'when' clause predicts a main clause. Anacoluthon builds that expectation and then abandons it. An original example: 'When she opened the telegram, the kettle, someone should turn off the kettle.' The 'when' clause promises a payoff that never comes; the mind in the sentence has fled to the kettle because the telegram is unbearable.
The break must be legible as a swerve, not a typo. Writers usually anchor it with punctuation (a dash is traditional, though a comma or full stop works), and by making the new direction emotionally explicable even when it is grammatically wrong.
Where You Will See It
Shakespeare gives King Lear anacoluthon at his angriest: 'I will have such revenges on you both, that all the world shall, I will do such things' collapses precisely because the rage exceeds the syntax. Sterne's 'Tristram Shandy' runs on derailed sentences. In modern poetry, stream-of-consciousness writing and trauma poems use anacoluthon constantly, and any dramatic monologue gains realism when its speaker's grammar occasionally fails.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Ration it. One broken sentence at a poem's emotional peak reads as truth; five read as carelessness. Prepare the reader with clean syntax beforehand, so the break registers as an event. And make the swerve meaningful: the place the sentence escapes to should reveal what the speaker cannot face saying straight.
In performance and on the contest page alike, deliberate breakage stands out. A judge scoring emotion can feel the difference between a sentence that fails and a poem that shows a sentence failing.
What poets can take from this
- Use anacoluthon once, at the point of highest pressure, not throughout.
- Surround the break with grammatically clean lines so it reads as deliberate.
- Let the sentence swerve toward something revealing, not merely away from the subject.
- Punctuate the break clearly so it cannot be mistaken for an editing error.
- Read the passage aloud; a true anacoluthon sounds like speech under strain.
Try it yourself
Write a dramatic monologue in which a speaker tries three times to deliver one piece of bad news. Each attempt derails mid-sentence into a different memory, and the news itself is never stated.
Questions
How is anacoluthon different from ellipsis?
Ellipsis omits words the reader can restore; the underlying grammar stays intact. Anacoluthon breaks the grammar itself, starting one construction and abandoning it for another. Ellipsis is tidy omission; anacoluthon is visible derailment.
Will readers think an anacoluthon is a mistake?
They will if it appears without context. Establish grammatical control in the surrounding lines, place the break at an emotional peak, and punctuate it decisively. Deliberateness is proved by everything around the break.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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