In addition to the amount quoted and line breaks, other factors that matter include stanza breaks, and unusual layouts.
Special Issues: Stanza Breaks, Unusual Layouts
Stanza Breaks: Mark stanza breaks that occur in a quotation with two forward slashes, with a space before and after them ( / / ) (78).
William Carlos Williams depicts a vivid image in “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends / / upon / / a red wheel / / barrow / / glazed with rain / / water / / beside the white / / chickens” (“Williams”).
Unusual Layouts: If the layout of the lines in the original text is unusual, reproduce it as accurately as you can (79).
The English metaphysical John Donne uses indentation in some of his poems to create unusual layouts, as the first stanza of including “A Valediction: of Weeping” demonstrates:
Let me pour forth My tears before they face, whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth, For thus they be Pregnant of thee; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more, When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore, So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore. (lines 1-9)
When you must quote dialogue from a play, adhere to these rules:
Example: One of the flashbacks in Margaret Edson’s Wit suggests Vivian Bearing’s illness causes her to question some of her previous interactions with students:
STUDENT 1. Professor Bearing? Can I talk to you for a minute?
VIVIAN: You may.
STUDENT 1: I need to ask for an extension on my paper. I’m really sorry, and I know your policy, but see—
VIVIAN: Don’t tell me. Your grandmother died.
STUDENT 1: You knew.
VIVIAN: It was a guess.
STUDENT 1: I have to go home.
VIVIAN: Do what you will, but the paper is due when it is due. (63)
Omissions: Follow the rules for omissions in quotations of prose (83).
Although some of the rules for quoting plays and poetry in MLA differ than those for quoting prose, understanding the guidelines will help you apply them in any scenario.
Donne, John. “The Bait.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 43-4.
—. “The Break of Day.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 45-6. Edson, Margaret. Wit. Faber and Faber, 1993.
Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 39. The Pelican Shakespeare: The Sonnets . Penguin Books, 1970, p. 59.
Williams, William Carlos: “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/45502 .
Yeats, William. “A Prayer for My Daughter.” The Collected Poems . Ed. Richard Finneran. Scribner, 1983, pp. 188-190.
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Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.
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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Poem in MLA
When writing a research essay, you may want to include poetry. It can be difficult to know how to cite a poem properly since it’s a particular type of resource that can be found online, in a book, or in an anthology.
This page contains everything you need to know to cite a poem in MLA style within your paper and on your reference page, as well as how to properly quote poems of different lengths within your paper. This page also contains information on creating your citations, formatting examples, and what details you need to compile before you can begin.
This guide follows rules established in the MLA Handbook , 9th edition, but is not officially associated with the Modern Language Association.
Before you can create your poem citation, you will need to gather information on your source. If available, find:
Since poems can come from multiple sources, there are a few basic formats you can follow to create a citation. The formatting guidelines are different depending on where you found the poem. This section contains the basic format for any poetry you found online, including if it’s a PDF from another source.
Basic format:
Poet’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Poem.” Year of poem’s original publication (if available). Title of the Website, Name of Website Publisher, URL. Accessed day month year.
Frost, Robert. “Birches.” 1969. Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44260/birches. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
The formatting guidelines for citing a poem from a book are different from the guidelines for citing a poem found online. Note that anthologies have their own citation format. An anthology is a collection of works from different authors. This section contains the basic guidelines for citing a poem from a book. The format for anthologies is provided in the next section.
Basic Format:
Poet’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Poem.” Title of the Book, Name of Publishing Company, Year of publication, page number or page range.
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Robert Frost Selected Poems, Fall River Press, 2011, p. 25.
The guidelines for citing a poem from an anthology are different from the guidelines for citing a poem found online or even in a poetry book. An anthology is a compilation of different works from different authors or artists. The following format is for poems from an anthology.
Basic Format for a poem in an anthology:
Poet’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Poem.” Title of Anthology, edited by Editor’s First and Last Name, edition (if applicable), volume (if applicable), Publisher, year of anthology publication, page number or page range.
Drummond, William. “Life.” The Giant Book of Poetry , edited by William Roetzheim, Level4Press Inc, 2006, p. 55.
Unlike the reference page citations, MLA in-text citations for poems are generally the same regardless of the source. The examples below follow Sections 6.22 and 6.36 from the Handbook.
For in an-text citation, all you need to provide is:
(Poet’s Last Name, line(s) #-#)
(Chaucer, lines 6-10)
If you state the author’s name within the sentence, you may just include the line numbers in parentheses instead of repeating the author’s name in the in-text citation. If no line numbers for the poem exist, do not count the lines yourself. Instead, include a page number.
As stated by Chaucer, “Thoght ye to me ne do no daliance” (line 8).
Using a direct quote from a poem is different from making a reference to a poem within your paper. To use a direct quote, you must put it in quotation marks.
To quote anything from a partial line of poetry up to three lines of poetry, you can simply use quotations and a “/” symbol to separate the lines, with a space on either side of the slash. Following the in-text citation guidelines in the section above, place your in-text citation at the end of your quote in parentheses, after the closing quotation marks and before the period.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – / I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference” (Frost, lines 18-20).
In Robert Frost’s poem, he states, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – / I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference” (lines 18-20).
If you’d like to directly quote four or more lines of poetry within your paper, you will need to follow different guidelines than the ones above for three or fewer lines of poetry. When quoting four or more lines of poetry, you will not use quotation marks. Here are more formatting guidelines:
The poem describes choices in life by using the metaphor of a fork in the road:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; (Frost, lines 1-5)
MLA Handbook . 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.
Published October 21, 2013. Updated May 18, 2021.
Written by Grace Turney. Grace is a former librarian and has a Master’s degree in Library Science and Information Technology. She is a freelance author and artist.
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In-text citation for a poem can be in the following format:
William Wordsworth wrote, “The storm came on before its time: / She wandered up and down” (lines 11-12).
The author was inspired by the lines of a poem: Not blither is the mountain roe: With many a wanton stroke Her feet disperse the powdery snow, That rises up like smoke. (Wordsworth, lines 13–16)
To cite a poem or short story, include the following details: the author’s name, year published, title of the poem/story, title of the book where you located or read the poem (if applicable), book editor’s first and last name (if applicable), publisher name, and page numbers.
Author Surname, X. Y. (Year). Title of story or poem. In A. A. Editor (Ed.), (edition, page range). Publisher. | |
Gupta, S. (2019). The foolish thief. In P. Manoj (Ed.), (pp. 153-155). Wonder House Books. | |
(Author Surname, Year) (Gupta, 2019) | |
Author Surname (Year) Gupta (2019) |
Author Surname, First Name. “Story or Poem Title.” , edited by Editor First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year, pp. XX-XX. | |
Gupta, Singh. “The Foolish Thief.” , edited by Pankaj Manoj, Wonder House Books, 2019, pp. 153-155. | |
(Author Surname page number) (Gupta 153) | |
Author Surname (page number) Gupta (153) |
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Writing about Robert Frost? Scribbling about Shakespeare? Then make sure you know how to quote poetry . This is not quite the same as quoting prose, but the rules are easy to understand once you know them. Here, for example, is how to quote and reference a poem in MLA referencing .
The format for quoting poetry in MLA depends on how much you are quoting. If it is three lines or fewer, you can quote it in line with the rest of your text. However, you will need to include a forward slash to indicate a line break (or a double slash for a stanza break). For example:
In “For E.J.P.,” he writes “I once believed a single line / in a Chinese poem could change / forever how blossoms fell” (Cohen 1-3).
As you can see, we also cite the poem after we have quoted it. The citation format here follows standard MLA conventions , but you should typically use line numbers rather than page numbers.
For quotes of more than three lines, set it on a new line, without quote marks, and indented from the left margin (like a block quote). For instance:
The poem ends as follows:
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. (Frost 15-20)
Try to make the layout of the poem as close as possible to the original.
Another question is how to present poem titles on the page. This depends on the poem’s length. The MLA system suggests:
This applies when you name a poem in your writing, when listing poems in the Works Cited list, and when using titles within citations (e.g., if you are citing two sources by the same person ). So make sure to be consistent!
Finally, we’ll look at how to list poems in your Works Cited list. For single poems published as a standalone book, this is simple: just list it as you would any other book . The same is true when citing a poetry anthology with a single author (though you may need to name the editor, too).
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But for a poem from a mixed anthology (i.e., one containing poems by several authors), the format is like referencing a chapter from an edited book :
Surname, First Name. “Title of Poem.” Title of Anthology , edited by Editor Name(s), Publisher, Year, Page number(s).
Note that we use the actual page numbers for the poem within the container volume here, not line numbers. We would therefore list a print poem in a Works Cited list along the following lines:
Cohen, Leonard. “For E.J.P.” 20 th -Century Poets: An Anthology , edited by G. Edwards, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 2012, pp. 59-60.
For a poem found online, you can reference it as if it were a web page:
Surname, First Name. “Title of Poem.” Title of Site/Publishing Organization , date of publication (if available), URL. Date accessed (if required).
Remember that the date here should be when the poem was published online, not when it was originally written. In practice, then, the Works Cited list entry for a poem found online would look like this:
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” PoemHunter , 20 Oct. 2016, www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-road-not-taken. (Accessed Oct. 19, 2018).
If you are unsure whether to include a date of access, check your style guide or ask your supervisor/professor. And if you’d like someone to check the clarity and consistency of your referencing, our expert editors can help .
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When you're dealing with poems in an essay or any other academic paper, you might find yourself needing to reference or quote them. Knowing how to cite a poem properly will not only help you adhere to academic standards but also enhance your writing by highlighting the relevance of a particular line of the poem. This comprehensive guide will shed light on how to cite a poem in various formats, include both short and long quotes, and ensure that your citations align with the MLA style guidelines. You'll find it handy whether you are a student, writer, or literature enthusiast. Get ready to explore the essentials of citing a poem.
Citing a poem is crucial when you include specific words, lines, or ideas from a poem in your writing. There are instances when you need to cite a poem, and understanding these scenarios will guide you in applying correct citation. Whether you're using a short poem or a specific emilyspoetryblog.com line from a longer poem, proper citation will not only help your readers trace the original source but also maintain the integrity of your work. You should cite a poem when quoting it directly, paraphrasing a particular section, or even when referring to its title or author. Citing a poem ensures that you give credit where credit is due, adhering to academic honesty and avoiding plagiarism.
When it comes to citing a poem, the format you use might differ based on the style guide you are following. The most common method is MLA formatting, but others like APA and Chicago styles might apply. When citing a poem in MLA, you'll need to include the author's name, poem title, and page number if applicable. For short quotes from the poem, you'll use quotation marks, while for long quotes, you'll apply block quotes formatting. If you are using online sources, don't forget to include the URL. This section will dive deeper into the various ways to cite a poem, ensuring that you do it correctly and efficiently.
When you want to quote a poem in your essay, and it's up to three lines long, you'll use the regular in-text citation method. You should cite the author's last name and the line number in parentheses right after the quote. Here's how to do it: "This is the quote" (Author's Last Name Line Number). For short quotes like these, you'll need to use quotation marks and properly format the citation according to the MLA guidelines. This method is suitable for integrating brief, impactful lines from a poem that can emphasize a point or illustrate a theme in your writing. Make sure to cite the lines correctly to maintain the authenticity of your work.
When quoting more than four lines from a poem, you should use the block quotes method. This formatting allows you to include longer sections of a poem without crowding your text. To correctly quote a long poem section, start the quote on a new line, indenting one inch from the left margin, and do not use quotation marks. Here's how to format it in your essay: This is the quote This is the continuation of the quote. (Author's Last Name Line Numbers). By following this method, you can include longer quotes from a poem in a visually appealing way, allowing your readers to fully grasp the context and meaning of the quoted section.
The title of a poem is more than just a name; it often provides insights into the poem's theme or subject matter. When citing a poem, you must include the title in italics or enclosed in quotation marks, depending on the citation style. In MLA format, for example, the title should be enclosed in quotation marks. Including the poem title in your citation ensures that your readers can easily locate the original source and perhaps explore it further. This is an essential aspect of citing a poem and one that contributes to the clarity and accuracy of your writing.
When dealing with short quotes from a poem, you must apply specific formatting rules. These quotes, usually up to three lines long, need to be enclosed in quotation marks and followed by a citation in parentheses. The citation should include the author's last name and the line numbers. Short quotes can be an effective way to emphasize a point or illustrate a theme in your writing. By using them correctly, you'll ensure that your work is both engaging and academically sound. Always remember to cite these short quotes correctly to maintain the integrity of your work.
Long quotes from a poem, typically more than four lines, require special formatting known as block quotes. These quotes should start on a new line, be indented one inch from the left margin, and should not be enclosed in quotation marks. Including long quotes in your writing allows you to present more substantial portions of a poem, providing your readers with a richer context or a more profound understanding of the subject matter. Long quotes must be cited properly, including the author's last name and the line numbers, following the MLA guidelines. By applying this method correctly, you'll add depth and nuance to your writing while adhering to academic standards.
Quoting a poem in an essay is not merely about inserting lines from the poem. It involves understanding the context, choosing the appropriate quote that fits your argument, and then formatting it according to the required citation style, such as MLA. When you quote a poem in an essay, you should be thoughtful in selecting the lines that resonate with your topic and contribute to your argument. Don't forget to include both short and long quotes, depending on the need, and always ensure that you cite them correctly. This practice adds credibility to your essay and helps your readers understand the relevance of the quoted poem.
Citing a poem comes with specific rules and guidelines that you must adhere to. Here are some essential dos and don'ts to keep in mind:
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Working with a poem as a source? Here’s a guide to citing and quoting a poem in MLA format.
Citing a poem in MLA involves using parenthetical citations and ensuring the in-text information matches the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.
Following the author-page format, you can seamlessly integrate quotes and paraphrases into your writing while properly crediting the source. Works by multiple authors, unknown authors, and those with multiple editions require specific citation guidelines that we’ll explore in detail.
Remember, accuracy and proper formatting matter when citing and quoting a poem in MLA format.
Consult the MLA Handbook and Style Manual for further guidance or specific reference questions. And don’t forget, if you need writing help, our expert writers can assist you within 2-3 hours.
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The basic format for an i n-text citation of a poem in MLA is to include the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken. The author’s name can be mentioned in the sentence or enclosed in parentheses, while the page number(s) should always appear in parentheses.
Here are a few examples to illustrate how to cite poems in various scenarios:
In his poem “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost reflects on the choices we make in life (19). (Frost 19)
If you are citing multiple poems by the same author, you can include the title of the poem in your citation:
Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” emphasizes the power of optimism (4). (Dickinson, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” 4)
If you are citing a poem from a collection or anthology, you should include the page range of the specific poem:
In “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot explores themes of disillusionment and despair (Eliot 25-30). (Eliot 25-30)
Remember, these are just a few examples of how to cite poems in MLA format. The specific rules may vary depending on your source and edition. It’s always a good idea to consult the MLA Handbook for more detailed guidelines.
Poet’s Last Name | Page Number(s) |
---|---|
Frost | 19 |
Eliot | 25-30 |
Dickinson | 4 |
It is important to follow the MLA guidelines to ensure accurate and proper citation for print sources such as a book, magazines, scholarly journal articles, or newspapers.
Here is an example of a properly formatted in-text citation for a poem from a print source:
“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility” (Wordsworth 26).
In this example, the poem is from a book by Wordsworth, and the quote can be found on page 26.
Source Type | Format |
---|---|
Book | Last Name, First Name. . Publisher, Year. |
Article | Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” , vol. X, no. X, Year, pp. XX-XX. |
Newspaper | Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” , Day Month Year, p. X. |
Corporate Author | Corporate Author. . Publisher, Year. |
Working on a Literature Paper?
When citing and quoting a poem in MLA format, citing online sources is essential. This is especially important in today’s digital age, where information can be found online.
The basic format for an online poem citation includes the author’s last name, the poem’s title in quotation marks, the title of the database or website in italics, the publication date, and the URL or DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
Example: Eliot, T.S. “The Waste Land.” The Waste Land and Other Poems . Poetry Foundation, 1922, www.poetryfoundation.org.
For poems from online newspapers or magazines, the citation follows a similar format but also includes the name of the publication and the section or page number where the poem is located.
Author | Title of Poem | Publication | Date | URL |
---|---|---|---|---|
Eliot, T.S. | The Waste Land | Poetry Foundation | 1922 | www.poetryfoundation.org |
As you complete your research paper or essay, creating a Works Cited page is important to document all the sources you used
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create a well-organized Works Cited page in MLA format.
After the last page of your paper, begin a new page and center the title “Works Cited” at the top. Make sure the page is double-spaced throughout, including the title.
List your sources in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If there is no author, use the title of the work instead. Each entry should be flush with the left margin, with subsequent lines indented by 0.5 inches.
For books, include the author’s name, book title in italics, publisher, year of publication, and medium of publication. For articles, include the author’s name, article title in quotation marks, journal or website title in italics, volume and issue numbers, publication date, and medium of publication.
Remember to follow the specific formatting guidelines for different types of sources. For example, books are formatted differently from online articles. Double-check your entries for accuracy and consistency.
“The Works Cited page is your opportunity to give credit to the authors and creators of the works you referenced in your paper. By following the MLA guidelines for creating a Works Cited page, you are ensuring the integrity of your research and providing your readers with the necessary information to locate and evaluate the sources you used.”
Book | Article |
---|---|
Dickens, Charles. . Penguin Classics, 2012. | Smith, John. “The Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity.” , vol. 465, no. 7299, 2009, pp. 1026-1028. |
When citing and quoting a poem in MLA format, it’s not just about the in-text citations and Works Cited page. The formatting of your entire paper also needs to follow MLA guidelines. Let’s take a look at some key formatting rules that you need to keep in mind.
Remember to;
To cite a poem in MLA format, you need to include the poet’s last name and the line numbers in the text (e.g., Logan 5-7). If you are citing multiple poems from the same poet, you can include the poem’s title after the poet’s name (e.g., Wordsworth, “Gregory” 5-7). The basic format for an i n-text citation of a poem in MLA is to include the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken. The author’s name can be mentioned in the sentence or enclosed in parentheses, while the page number(s) should always appear in parentheses.
If the poem does not have line numbers, you can use the page number instead (e.g., Wordsworth 25). Alternatively, you can use the poem’s title, but be sure to enclose it in quotation marks (e.g., Wordsworth, “Daffodils”).
For the Works Cited page, the citation for a poem should follow this format: Last name, First name. “Title of Poem.” Title of Book or Anthology (in italics or underlined), edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year of publication, page range of poem.
Yes, poem is long, you can use a shortened version in the in-text citation. Just make sure it is clear which poem you are referring to. You can use the first few words of the poem’s title or a keyword.
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Last Updated: December 18, 2023 Fact Checked
This article was co-authored by Michelle Golden, PhD . Michelle Golden is an English teacher in Athens, Georgia. She received her MA in Language Arts Teacher Education in 2008 and received her PhD in English from Georgia State University in 2015. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 165,260 times.
The American Psychological Association (APA) style guide is very popular, especially in the social sciences. If you need to write a paper in APA style, there are a lot of different formatting rules to consider. Citing sources, such as poems, can be one of the most confusing things, but if you follow a few simple rules, you'll have perfectly formatted citations.
If you want to cite a poem using the APA style, include your quote from a poem in quotation marks if it's less than 40 words, and use forward slashes to indicate line breaks. To cite a longer passage, begin the quote on a new line and indent it to create a block quotation. For your in-text citation, include the author's name, year of publication, and page number, preceded by the letter "p." When it comes to the title, capitalize all major words, place short titles in quotes, and italicize longer titles. To learn how to include your citation in the works cited section of your essay, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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Writing, and all of its connected skills, are essential to succeed in studying — especially humanities. One such skill is the proper use of quotations. To make a quotation means to place the exact words of another author in your essay — these words could be lines from a poem as well.
When is it appropriate to cite a poem? Most often, quotes from poems are used by liberal art students, literature students, and language students. It is hard to imagine writing an essay about a poet without including some pieces of his works, or describing some poetry trend without providing examples. Also, you may find poem lines used in descriptive, reflective, argumentative, and compare and contrast essays.
Nevertheless, even if you are not a humanities student, you are not limited to use poem citations in your works if the meaning of the line(s) you have chosen is relevant. While there are no rules on where you may cite a poem, there are a lot on how you should do it in different formatting styles. Continue reading to find out more about how to cite a poem correctly or simply use professional help. Need help? You can buy custom essay at EssayPro.
To get help from essay writer online , just let us know your requirements and we will create an original paper with proper formatting.
The most popular formatting style is MLA (Modern Language Association). Despite it possibly being the easiest style to use, you will need some time to learn all of the rules, and time to train to apply them.
You might also be interested in how to style an essay using MLA FORMAT
The rules of citing a poem in MLA style depend on the citation’s length. Quotes up to three lines are considered to be short, and quotes longer than three lines – long.
Element | Format | Example |
---|---|---|
In-text citation | (Poet's Last Name Line(s)) | (Frost lines 1-2) |
Works Cited | Poet's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Book or Anthology, Editor's First Name and Last Name, Edition, Publisher, Year of Publication, Page Numbers. | Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." Mountain Interval, Henry Holt and Company, 1916, pp. 1-2. |
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Citing a Short Quote | Citing a Long Quote |
---|---|
There is no need to start a short quote on a new line; you may write it just between the text. | If you choose a long quote, some rules are just the opposite of how you would properly write a small quote — and you should be really careful not to mix them up. |
Though, it is obligatory to put it in quotation marks. | Start your quotation from a new line, with a half-inch indent from the left margin. |
If question or exclamation marks are part of the poem, put them inside the quotation marks; leave them outside if they are a part of your text. | Put it in a block quote. Include line breaks in the quote as they are in the original. |
Use a slash to mark line breaks, or a double slash if there is a stanza break; put a space before and after the slash. | Keep the original formatting and punctuation as part of the author’s style. |
Start each line of the poem with a capital letter (at the beginning and after the slash marks). | Use double-space spacing inside the quote. |
There is no need for quotation marks or slashes, just skip them. |
Short Quote Example:
In “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman wrote, “I exist as I am, that is enough, / If no other in the world be aware I sit content, / And if each and all be aware I sit content.”
Long Quote Example:
Emily Dickinson wrote: Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.
Regardless of the length of a quote, you should clearly indicate the poet’s last name. You should also include the title of the poem if you cite more than one poem by the same author in your work. You may do it in two ways: mention it before the quotation in the main text, or include it in a parenthetical citation at the end of the lines. If you mentioned the name and the title before the quote, but you’re not sure if it will be obvious for the reader, you may repeat it in a parenthetical citation — it won’t be considered as a mistake.
Besides the poet’s last name and the title of the poem, a parenthetical citation should include a line or page number. Here are some brief rules for parenthetical citations:
Example: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” (Frost, lines 18-20)
Example: “Your head so much concerned with outer, / Mine with inner, weather.” (Frost 126)
Example: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” (Mary Oliver)
Example: Here is what Pablo Neruda wrote about this feeling, “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
Examples: “A Book”, “Fire and Ice”, or “Nothing Gold can’t Stay”
Example: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Because I could not Stop for Death.
Examples: Dickinson, Emily. “A Book.” Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems , edited by Anthony Eyre, Mount Orleans Press, 2019, pp. 55-56.
Example: Frost, Robert. “Fire and Ice”. Poetry Foundation , https://poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice. Accessed 28 Nov. 2019.
You may also be interested in how to write a conclusion for a research paper . This information will be useful for all kinds of student papers, whether you need just to cite a poem or write a political science essay. If you need assistance, a political science essay writer can help you craft an exceptional paper.
APA is the abbreviation for American Psychological Association, and is the second most popular formatting style — used mainly in social studies. Here are some APA rules for poem citations that you need to know from our service:
Element | Format | Example |
---|---|---|
In-text citation | (Poet's Last Name, Year) | (Frost, 1923) |
Works Cited | Poet's Last Name, First Initial. (Year of Publication). Title of the Poem. Title of the Book (if applicable). Publisher. DOI or URL (if available). | Frost, R. (1923). Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening |
If your quote is taken from a book, a full reference to the source in the Works Cited page (in APA style) should be made according to the following template: Poet’s Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Poem title. In Editor Initial. Last Name (Ed.), Book title (pp. xx-xx). Location: Publisher.
Example: Dickinson, E. (2019). A book. A. Eyre (Ed.), Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems (pp.55-56). Cricklade, U.K.: Mount Orleans Press.
If a quotation was taken from a website, the following template should be used: Poet’s Last Name, First Initial. (Year, Month Day). Poem title. Retrieved from http://WebAddress.
Example: Dickinson, E. (2019, November 28). I'm Nobody! Who are you? Retrieved from https://poets.org/poem/im-nobody-who-are-you-260.
In Harvard style, citing a poem follows a similar format to citing other sources. Here's how you can cite a poem using Harvard style:
In-text citation:
For in-text citations, include the poet's last name, the year of publication (if available), and the page number if you are quoting directly. If the poem is online, you can include the title, stanza, or line number instead of the page number.
According to Frost (1916), "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by" (p. 1).
As Frost (1916) famously wrote, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by" (p. 1).
If the poem has no page numbers, you can use line numbers instead:
(Brathwaite, 2007, lines 5-8)
If you're paraphrasing or referring to the poem generally, you can just mention the poet's name and the year:
According to Dickinson (1896), life is often portrayed as a journey.
Dickinson's (1896) poetry often explores themes of mortality and nature.
Reference list entry:
In the reference list, include the full bibliographic details of the poem, including the poet's name, the title of the poem (in italics), the publication year, the title of the book or anthology (if applicable), the editor's name (if applicable), the publisher, and the page numbers (if applicable).
Frost, R. (1916). The Road Not Taken. In Mountain Interval. Henry Holt and Company.
Brathwaite, E. K. (2007). Barabajan Poems 1492-1992. Wesleyan University Press.
Make sure to italicize the poem's title and the book or anthology title. If you're citing a poem from an online source, include the URL and the access date. Always check your institution's guidelines for citation formatting, as variations in citation style requirements may exist.
Here are a few recommendations on how to format poem quotations properly. They will be useful whether or not you are a beginner or advanced user of poem citations, regardless of what formatting style you are using.
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How to cite a poem in mla, how to properly cite a poem, how to cite a poem in harvard style.
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Poetry holds a unique place in literature, offering a rich tapestry of emotions and vivid expressions with quote a poem in an Essay. When crafting an essay, incorporating quotes from poems can elevate the narrative, adding layers of meaning and literary flair. In this guide, we’ll explore the art of quoting a poem in an essay, unraveling the intricacies and offering practical tips to seamlessly integrate poetic verses into your writing with our Poem Generator .
Poetry quotes refer to excerpts or lines taken directly from poems that encapsulate the essence, emotion, or artistic expression within a concise form. These quotes are often used to enhance various forms of writing, including essays, by incorporating the poetic language and literary elements found in the original work.
Before diving into the quoting process, it’s essential to grasp the distinction between quoting and paraphrasing. While paraphrasing involves rephrasing the poet’s words in your own, quoting preserves the original language, capturing the essence of the poet’s expression.
A well-integrated quote should seamlessly blend with the surrounding text. Avoid abrupt introductions; instead, let the quote flow naturally within the context of your sentences. This ensures a smooth transition and prevents disruption in the essay’s flow.
Choosing a quote that aligns with your essay’s theme is crucial. The selected verse should enhance your argument or illustrate a point, contributing to the overall coherence of your writing. Beyond relevance, consider the literary merit of the chosen poem quote. Opt for verses that showcase poetic devices, such as metaphors, similes, or vivid imagery, enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your essay.
Quoting a poem in an essay requires a careful and thoughtful approach to ensure seamless integration while maintaining the integrity of the poet’s work. Here’s a step-by-step guide on the best way to quote a poem in an essay:
Remember, the best way to quote a poem in an essay involves a delicate balance between your original voice and the poetic expression you’re incorporating. Thoughtful selection, proper citation, and seamless integration contribute to a compelling and well-crafted essay.
In the Modern Language Association (MLA) format, citing poems involves specifying line numbers. The format is as follows: (Author’s Last Name Line Number).
In MLA (Modern Language Association) citation style, quoting poems involves a specific format to ensure accurate and consistent referencing. Here’s a guide on how to cite poems in MLA style:
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
Delve into the poetic devices within your chosen quotes. Analyze metaphors, similes, and vivid imagery, showcasing your understanding of the poet’s craft. This adds depth to your essay, impressing upon the reader the layers of meaning embedded in the verses.
As you incorporate quotes, convey the inherent poetic elements effectively. Share your insights on how these elements contribute to the overall theme or message of the poem. This analytical approach elevates your essay beyond a mere collection of verses.
All in all, the judicious incorporation of well-chosen poem quotes will both enrich your essay and add depth and feeling to it. Do your best to follow citation styles, and do not overquote. You should have a pleasant blend of the poet’s voice with yours. Analyze poetic devices, encourage critical reflection and allow each quote to play a part in the overall effect. Incorporating carefully selected poem quotes into an essay is not just a academic exercise, it’s a brings your writing to another level. Therefore, use the power of poetry to enhance your essays and thrill readers with language.
No, it’s crucial to preserve the original wording of the poem when quoting. However, you can add square brackets to insert clarifications or minor changes for grammatical coherence, ensuring your alterations are clearly indicated.
When a poem is not paginated by lines, use standard numbering
It’s generally advisable to avoid quoting an entire poem as it may overwhelm your essay. Select key verses that specifically support your argument or theme. If you must quote extensively, consider using block quotations for longer passages
In a block quote, indent the entire quote one inch from the left margin. Do not use quotation marks for block quotes. Maintain double-spacing throughout, and include the poet’s name and line numbers in parentheses after the quote
While it’s not mandatory in MLA, it’s good practice to include the title, especially if you’re quoting multiple poems by the same poet. This helps readers identify the specific work you’re referencing
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Last Updated: August 4, 2024 References
This article was co-authored by Michelle Golden, PhD . Michelle Golden is an English teacher in Athens, Georgia. She received her MA in Language Arts Teacher Education in 2008 and received her PhD in English from Georgia State University in 2015. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 65,511 times.
Quoting poetry in your writing is a bit trickier than quoting prose. Because poetry is stylized a certain way, you try to maintain that style for your readers, though how you maintain the style differs according to whether you're using a short quote or a longer quote. After you quote parts of a poem, you'll also need to create an in-text citation and an end reference for the poem to show your readers where you found the information. The most common style to use for citations in literature essays is the style from the Modern Language Association (MLA), though you may also need to use Chicago or American Psychological Association (APA) style.
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Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.
In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.
General Guidelines
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:
Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:
Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.
For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.
These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.
When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.
If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:
The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).
Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.
Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.
Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .
If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:
In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:
"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.
If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.
Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.
Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:
When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in Nature in 1921, you might write something like this:
See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .
Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:
For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:
Corresponding Works Cited entry:
Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1
For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.
Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.
If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.
Citing two articles by the same author :
Citing two books by the same author :
Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):
If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)
In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:
If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:
John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).
Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:
Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.
Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.
Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.
Here is an example from O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh.
WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.
ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.
WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)
With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's Evaluating Sources of Information resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.
Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:
Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:
In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:
Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.
Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.
Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:
In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).
In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:
Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009.
"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.
To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:
When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).
Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.
The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.
In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.
You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.
Whether you are writing an essay about a poet or simply quoting a poem or referring to its themes, you may find yourself needing to reference the poem's title. However, it can be hard to remember whether the title is italicized, underlined or put into quotation marks. Although the treatment varies depending on the length of the poem and the format you are using, you can follow some general rules for citing poem titles in your paper.
Write the title of the poem in title case. All of the words should be capitalized except articles ("a," "an" or "the"), short prepositions ("in," "on," "with," "at") or coordinating conjunctions ("but," "and," "nor," "or," "so").
Put quotation marks around the poem's title unless it is a novel-length epic poem, such as "Paradise Lost" or "The Divine Comedy." In that case, italicize or underline the title.
Cite the poem with a parenthetical citation if you are using MLA or APA format. For MLA format, write the poet's last name and the page number from which you drew the specific portion of the poem you are citing. If you are citing specific lines, include those after the page number: (Frost 16, lines 23-26). For APA format, write the author's name, the year of publication and the page number from which you drew the information preceded by "p.": (Frost, 1997, p. 16). Do not include a page number if you are citing a website unless you are citing a PDF or another website that includes page numbers.
Create a footnote if you are using Chicago format. Write the poet's last name, the title of the poem, the name of the poem's anthology or the website from which you drew the poem, and the anthology or website's editor. Include the publisher, year and location of publication if you are citing a print poem and the URL and date of retrieval if you are citing a website. Place the page number and any specific lines from which you drew the information at the end of this footnote.
If you are citing an epic or classic poem, cite the canto, act and scene or book instead of the page number:
Yeats, William Butler, "When You Are Old," in Selected Poems: Fourth Edition, ed. M. L. Rosenthal (New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry, 1996),14, line 5.
Dante, "The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio," trans. John D. Sinclair (London, Oxford University Press, 1961), Canto XXVII, lines 34-36.
Dickinson, Emily, "I Heard A Fly Buzz," Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland, n.d., http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinson/i-heard-a-fly-buzz (accessed April 21, 2011).
Cite the poem in your bibliography according to the format you are using in the rest of the essay. For MLA format, include the author's last and first name, the title of the poem in quotation marks, the italicized title of the poem's anthology, the page number of the poem and the anthology's editor, date and place of publication and publisher. If the poem is a novel-length poem contained within a single volume, cite it as you would a novel.
If you found the poem online, cite it as you would any other website, including your date of access. Write "n.d." if no publication date is available.
Cite a short poem like this:
Yeats, William Butler. "When You Are Old." Selected Poems: Fourth Edition. Ed. M. L. Rosenthal. New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry, 1996.14.
Cite a long poem like this:
Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Classics. 1990.
Cite an online poem like this:
Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly Buzz." Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland. n.d. Web. 21 April 2011.
Cite the poet, date of publication, poem title, editor, anthology name, page number and date and location of publication for APA format. Cite a long poem as you would a novel. Cite a poem you found online with the poet's name, the website's editor, the name of the website, the retrieval date and the URL.
Yeats, William Butler (1996) When you are old. In M.L. Rosenthal (Ed.), Selected poems: fourth edition (p. 14). New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry.
Virgil (1990). The Aeneid. R. Fitzgerald (trans.). New York: Vintage Classics.
Dickinson, Emily (n.d.). I heard a fly buzz. In Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland (ed.), Selected poems by Emily Dickinson. Retrieved April 21, 2011 from http://www.mith2.umd.edu/.
Cite a bibliographic entry for Chicago Manual of Style as you would a footnote, replacing the commas with periods and omitting line numbers.
Virgil. The Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Classics, 1990.
Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly Buzz." Women's Studies Database Reading Room at the University of Maryland, n.d. http://www.mith2.umd.edu/(accessed April 21, 2011).
A resident of the Baltimore area, Rachel Kolar has been writing since 2001. Her educational research was featured at the Maryland State Department of Education Professional Schools Development Conference in 2008. Kolar holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Kenyon College and a Master of Arts in teaching from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.
Published on April 15, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on May 31, 2023.
Quoting means copying a passage of someone else’s words and crediting the source. To quote a source, you must ensure:
The exact format of a quote depends on its length and on which citation style you are using. Quoting and citing correctly is essential to avoid plagiarism which is easy to detect with a good plagiarism checker .
How to cite a quote in apa, mla and chicago, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about quoting sources.
Every time you quote, you must cite the source correctly . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style you’re using. Three of the most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .
To cite a direct quote in APA , you must include the author’s last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas . If the quote appears on a single page, use “p.”; if it spans a page range, use “pp.”
An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in parentheses after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.
Punctuation marks such as periods and commas are placed after the citation, not within the quotation marks .
Citing a quote in mla style.
An MLA in-text citation includes only the author’s last name and a page number. As in APA, it can be parenthetical or narrative, and a period (or other punctuation mark) appears after the citation.
Citing a quote in chicago style.
Chicago style uses Chicago footnotes to cite sources. A note, indicated by a superscript number placed directly after the quote, specifies the author, title, and page number—or sometimes fuller information .
Unlike with parenthetical citations, in this style, the period or other punctuation mark should appear within the quotation marks, followed by the footnote number.
, 510. |
Complete guide to Chicago style
The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:
Make sure you integrate quotes properly into your text by introducing them in your own words, showing the reader why you’re including the quote and providing any context necessary to understand it. Don’t present quotations as stand-alone sentences.
There are three main strategies you can use to introduce quotes in a grammatically correct way:
The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.
Introduce the quote with a full sentence ending in a colon . Don’t use a colon if the text before the quote isn’t a full sentence.
If you name the author in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs , such as “states,” “argues,” “explains,” “writes,” or “reports,” to describe the content of the quote.
You can also use a signal phrase that mentions the author or source, but doesn’t form a full sentence. In this case, you follow the phrase with a comma instead of a colon.
To quote a phrase that doesn’t form a full sentence, you can also integrate it as part of your sentence, without any extra punctuation .
When you quote text that itself contains another quote, this is called a nested quotation or a quote within a quote. It may occur, for example, when quoting dialogue from a novel.
To distinguish this quote from the surrounding quote, you enclose it in single (instead of double) quotation marks (even if this involves changing the punctuation from the original text). Make sure to close both sets of quotation marks at the appropriate moments.
Note that if you only quote the nested quotation itself, and not the surrounding text, you can just use double quotation marks.
Note: When the quoted text in the source comes from another source, it’s best to just find that original source in order to quote it directly. If you can’t find the original source, you can instead cite it indirectly .
Often, incorporating a quote smoothly into your text requires you to make some changes to the original text. It’s fine to do this, as long as you clearly mark the changes you’ve made to the quote.
If some parts of a passage are redundant or irrelevant, you can shorten the quote by removing words, phrases, or sentences and replacing them with an ellipsis (…). Put a space before and after the ellipsis.
Be careful that removing the words doesn’t change the meaning. The ellipsis indicates that some text has been removed, but the shortened quote should still accurately represent the author’s point.
You can add or replace words in a quote when necessary. This might be because the original text doesn’t fit grammatically with your sentence (e.g., it’s in a different verb tense), or because extra information is needed to clarify the quote’s meaning.
Use brackets to distinguish words that you have added from words that were present in the original text.
The Latin term “ sic ” is used to indicate a (factual or grammatical) mistake in a quotation. It shows the reader that the mistake is from the quoted material, not a typo of your own.
In some cases, it can be useful to italicize part of a quotation to add emphasis, showing the reader that this is the key part to pay attention to. Use the phrase “emphasis added” to show that the italics were not part of the original text.
You usually don’t need to use brackets to indicate minor changes to punctuation or capitalization made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.
If you quote more than a few lines from a source, you must format it as a block quote . Instead of using quotation marks, you set the quote on a new line and indent it so that it forms a separate block of text.
Block quotes are cited just like regular quotes, except that if the quote ends with a period, the citation appears after the period.
To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or more. (16)
Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in academic writing . To integrate a source , it’s often best to paraphrase , which means putting the passage in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.
However, there are some situations in which quoting is more appropriate.
If you want to comment on how the author uses language (for example, in literary analysis ), it’s necessary to quote so that the reader can see the exact passage you are referring to.
To convince the reader of your argument, interpretation or position on a topic, it’s often helpful to include quotes that support your point. Quotes from primary sources (for example, interview transcripts or historical documents) are especially credible as evidence.
When you’re referring to secondary sources such as scholarly books and journal articles, try to put others’ ideas in your own words when possible.
But if a passage does a great job at expressing, explaining, or defining something, and it would be very difficult to paraphrase without changing the meaning or losing the weakening the idea’s impact, it’s worth quoting directly.
If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Plagiarism
A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.
In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:
Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .
Every time you quote a source , you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style .
For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: “This is a quote” (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).
Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.
A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate “block” of text. Instead of using quotation marks , you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.
The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:
If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:
Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.
If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.
In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.
In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative , you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative , you may need to quote from the data you collected .
As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2023, May 31). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago. Scribbr. Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-quote/
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Sometimes poems are published with line numbers in the margin. In this case, use the line numbers in your in-text citation to more precisely locate the quote. Use the word "line" or "lines" (preceded by a comma) in the first citation, but only the numbers in subsequent citations. Example: Citing a poem with numbered lines.
2. Type short quotations of three lines or less in the text of your essay. Insert a slash with a space on each side to separate the lines of the poem. Type the lines verbatim as they appear in the poem--do not paraphrase. [2] Capitalize the first letter of each new line of poetry.
For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented 1/2 inch from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing ...
You should only quote a poem in your essay: 1. When Absolutely Necessary. You should only quote a poem in your essay when it is necessary. Quoting lines upon lines of a poem in your essay to boost the word count will not do you much good. Most professors will be annoyed when they notice you have done this in your essay.
Place the quoted text within quotation marks. Cite the author's surname and year of publication in brackets. If available, include a page number for the quoted passage. Otherwise, a single line of poetry will look like any other quote. If you're quoting two lines from a poem, though, you will need to include a include a forward slash to ...
Capitalize whatever is capitalized in the original poem. Include the author's name, the title(s) of the poem(s), and the line number(s) in the text (for better source integration) or within a parenthetical citation. If the passage you are quoting ends with a period, you may omit it because the period ending your sentence will serve in its place.
Set the quotation off from your text. Begin each part of the dialogue with the appropriate character's name. Indent each name half an inch from the left margin and write it in all capital letters. Follow the name with a period and then start the quotation. Indent all other lines in the character's speech an additional amount.
Accessed 1 Mar. 2020. Step-by-Step Instructions: Begin the citation with the poet's last name, with the first letter capitalized. Follow the last name with a comma and then the poet's first name, also with a capitalized first letter. Follow the first name with a period. Put the title of the poem in quotation marks.
This is called a block quotation. Zero quotes given. When you are quoting a large block of poetry, forget the quotes. Don't forget the colon. Your introduction line includes a colon. Indentation is important. To make the poem stand out and look like a block, indent a half-inch. Place a period before the citation.
If it is three lines or fewer, you can quote it in line with the rest of your text. However, you will need to include a forward slash to indicate a line break (or a double slash for a stanza break). For example: In "For E.J.P.," he writes "I once believed a single line / in a Chinese poem could change / forever how blossoms fell" (Cohen ...
Quote a Poem in an Essay. Quoting a poem in an essay is not merely about inserting lines from the poem. It involves understanding the context, choosing the appropriate quote that fits your argument, and then formatting it according to the required citation style, such as MLA. When you quote a poem in an essay, you should be thoughtful in ...
Citing and Quoting a Poem in MLA Format -How to properly cite a quote in MLA format from a poem. The basic format for an in-text citation of a poem in MLA is to include the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken. The author's name can be mentioned in the sentence or enclosed in parentheses, while the page number(s) should always appear in ...
1. Use quotation marks with short quotes. If you want to quote fewer than 40 words of a poem in your essay, the quote should be enclosed in quotation marks. You do not need to start a new line to set off the quote. [1] For example, introduce a short quote like this. Frost writes, "Some say the world will end in fire."
Start your quotation from a new line, with a half-inch indent from the left margin. If question or exclamation marks are part of the poem, put them inside the quotation marks; leave them outside if they are a part of your text. Put it in a block quote. Include line breaks in the quote as they are in the original.
In-Text Citation: When quoting a poem, include the poet's last name and the line number (s) in parentheses at the end of the quote. Place the punctuation outside the closing parenthesis. Example: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (Frost 1). Quoting Fewer Than Four Lines:
3. Indent long quotes two spaces. When you are quoting four or more lines from a poem, you should use a block quote, which means you set the quote off from the rest of the text. Once you have your intro phrase, hit the return or enter key to start the quotation. Then, indent the whole quote by two spaces.
To quote poetry in MLA style, introduce the quote and use quotation marks as you would for any other source quotation. If the quote includes line breaks, mark these using a forward slash with a space on either side. Use two slashes to indicate a stanza break. If the quote is longer than three lines, set them off from the main text as an MLA ...
Citing a poem in MLA style can seem difficult, but the basics. are the same as any other source. Remember to cite every source you use in your paper. Each source should be cited within the text and within your Works Cited page. Not citing each source in both locations is plagiarism. Poetry Works Cited entries should follow the format of the ...
In-text citations: Author-page style. MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number (s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the ...
The original line (line 8) is, "And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.". This phrase ends in a period. If you use this as a quote on its own, you would include that period and put it inside the quotation marks. The same would be true if the quote ended in an exclamation point or question mark.
Step 2. Cite the poet, date of publication, poem title, editor, anthology name, page number and date and location of publication for APA format. Cite a long poem as you would a novel. Cite a poem you found online with the poet's name, the website's editor, the name of the website, the retrieval date and the URL. Cite a short poem like this:
Revised on March 5, 2024. When you include a long quote in an MLA paper, you have to format it as a block quote. MLA style (8th edition) requires block quote formatting for: Quotes of poetry longer than three lines. Quotes of prose longer than four lines. An MLA block quote is set on a new line, indented 0.5 inches, with no quotation marks.
Citing a quote in APA Style. To cite a direct quote in APA, you must include the author's last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas. If the quote appears on a single page, use "p."; if it spans a page range, use "pp.". An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative.