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How to Quote and Cite a Poem in an Essay Using MLA Format
Last Updated: July 3, 2024 Fact Checked
Quoting in Essays
Citing in essays, citing in a works cited, template and examples.
This article was co-authored by Jamie Korsmo, PhD . Jamie Korsmo is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Georgia State University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. 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 1,334,965 times.
Navigating the MLA Handbook can be pretty overwhelming; there are so many rules that regulate the way we can quote and cite poetry in MLA format in our own writing. Improper quoting and citing can even be considered a form of plagiarism. Here is a comprehensive look at the most important things you need to know to make your English teacher happy with how you quote from and cite poetry in your papers.
- Example sentence: Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” discusses the idea of solitude versus living in a world of other people and obligations.
- Here is an example of several lines of poetry from Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep.
- Here is an example of how to insert several lines of poetry into an essay: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep."
- Example: Robert Frost writes about solitude and man’s relationship with nature: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. (1-4)
- Example: Robert Frost discusses solitude and a desire to forget obligations when he writes, "The woods are lovely...but I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (13-15).
Tip: If an ellipsis covers a line break, do not worry about including a backslash inside the ellipsis, as in the above example. But if you continue on without an ellipsis, include the backslashes that indicate line breaks.
- Example: Robert Frost discusses solitude when he writes, Whose woods these are I think I know. …………………………………………. He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. (1-4)
- If you don't take these steps correctly, then you aren't giving credit where it's due to the original author and your teacher may consider this plagiarism.
- Example: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep / But I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep” (13-15).
- Example: The notion of solitude appears in many notable poems including the famous lines, "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (Frost 13-15).
- Example of one quoted word: Robert Frost uses the word “sleep” to imply fantasies about solitude and perhaps death (15).
- Example of multiple words: Robert Frost uses a variety of words and phrases such as “frozen” (7), “darkest evening” (8), and “before I sleep” (15) to imply thoughts of solitude and the desire to not return to his obligations.
Tip: Just make sure that you include the proper line numbers, whatever the form. If you are citing a longer section of the poem, you will include more line numbers (12-32). If you cite two separate sections using an ellipsis, indicate the range of the sections with a comma separating them (11-15, 18-21).
- Example of citing a short quote: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep” (13-15).
- Example of citing a long quote: Robert Frost writes about solitude and man’s relationship with nature: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. (1-4)
- Example: The notion of solitude appears in many notable poems including the famous lines, "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (Frost, "Stopping by the Woods" 13-15). This idea is mirrored in the lines "And both that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black" (Frost, "The Road Not Taken" 11-12).
- Example: Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 224-225. Print.
- Example: Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Poetry Foundation. n.d. Web. 6 January 2014.
Tip: You do not need to add the URL of the website as they change often and are generally long and confusing, and URLs are not required in MLA format. [10] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
- Example (note this is a made up anthology): Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Little Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Marie Shier. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Some Publisher, 2010. 21-22. Print.
- Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 224-225. Print.
- ---. “The Road Not Taken.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 227-228. Print.
Community Q&A
- When writing about poetry in your essay, use the present tense. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
- Brackets are not needed around ellipses. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
You Might Also Like
- ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html
- ↑ https://stlcc.edu/student-support/academic-success-and-tutoring/writing-center/writing-resources/mla-in-text-citation-sample-essay-8th-edition.aspx
- ↑ https://style.mla.org/line-numbers-in-text-citation/
- ↑ https://otis.libguides.com/mla_citations/in-text
- ↑ https://www.monmouth.edu/resources-for-writers/documents/mla-citing-poetry.pdf/
- ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html
- ↑ https://libguides.uww.edu/mla/poem
- ↑ https://uwcchina.libguides.com/c.php?g=830919&p=6639313
About This Article
If you use a quote from a poem in an MLA-format essay, place the line numbers of the poem in parentheses right after the closing quotation marks, with the closing punctuation right behind the parentheses. If you mention the name of the author when you are introducing the text, you do not have to include the author’s name in the parenthesis, but you do if you have not already stated the name of the author. If the quote is more than 3 lines long, indent 10 spaces from the left margin when you type the poem. To learn about how to include a citation for a poem on the Works Cited page of your essay, continue reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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Encyclopedia for Writers
Composing with ai, quoting plays and poetry in mla.
- © 2023 by Angela Eward-Mangione - Hillsborough Community College
Table of Contents
The rules for quoting drama and/or poetry in Modern Language Association (MLA) Style differ from those for quoting the genre of prose. This article discusses rules for using MLA style to format quotes from drama and poetry. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more.
Quoting Poetry
The MLA Handbook offers specific guidelines for quoting poetry.
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)
Quoting Plays
When you must quote dialogue from a play, adhere to these rules:
- Set the quotation off from your text.
- 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.
- When the dialogue shifts to another character, start a new line indented half an inch.
- Maintain this pattern throughout the quotation (80).
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)
Special Issues
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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Quoting and Citing a Poem in MLA: Tips, Steps, and Insights
You are in the right place if you have been struggling online trying to discover how to quote and cite a poem in an MLA essay. You might have heard your professor say that quoting a poem in MLA means introducing the quote and using quotation marks, as you would for any other source. But how do you do that correctly when the quote includes line breaks? Let us look at this comprehensive guide to citing a poem in an MLA paper.
In this post, you will discover all the information you need to know to quote and cite poems correctly as per the MLA stylebook.
When to Quote a Poem
Before you learn how to quote and cite a poem, it is vital to learn when it is necessary to do so. 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. And this usually leads only to an average or lower grade. Therefore, quote a poem only when absolutely necessary.
You will know it is necessary to quote a poem when quoting a poem adds value to your paper. If you genuinely believe quoting a poem enhances your paper in one way or another, you should do it.
2. When You Want To Support Your Arguments
It would help if you quoted a poem to support your arguments. There are situations where you cannot write your essay correctly without quoting a poem.
For example, when you analyze a poem in your essay, you must quote it several times. This will help show the reader what you are talking about. In other words, it will help you to support your arguments.
Related Reading:
- How to use block quotes in MLA.
- How to title a movie in an essay.
- Indenting paragraphs in an academic essay.
Now that you know when to quote a poem in an essay, it is time to discover how exactly to do so. The information we share below will show you how to quote a poem in MLA.
Essential Tips to Quote a Poem in MLA
There are different rules for quoting just a single line of poetry, two or three lines, and for quoting four or more lines.
1. How to Quote a Single Line of Poetry in Your MLA Essay
Quoting a single line of poetry in an MLA essay is easy. You need to put it in double quotes. This is how you would quote a single line of anything else in your MLA essay. So nothing is challenging about it.
Putting a single line of poetry in your MLA essay without enclosing it with double quotation marks will make it difficult for your professor to know you are quoting something.
And do not for a moment think that italicizing a line of poetry can work in lieu of the double quotation marks. It cannot work since it is not how the MLA stylebook requires you to quote a single line of poetry.
Examples of how to quote a single line of poetry:
- "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping" Edgar Allan Poe
- "The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed" Percy Shelley
- "Life is but an empty dream!" Henry Longfellow
2. How to Quote Two or Three Lines of Poetry
Quoting two or three lines of poetry is a bit more complex than quoting just one. This is because two or three lines of poetry will need something to tell the reader they are moving to the next line.
So how do you do it? Write two or three lines of poetry and enclose them with double quotation marks. Then use the forward slash symbol "/" to show the transition from one line to the next. The symbol should be preceded and followed by space.
If the lines you are quoting are from two different stanzas, use the double forward slash symbol "//" to show the transition from one stanza to the next.
One important thing to remember when quoting a chunk of poetry in your essay is that you should always retain the same styling, capitalization, and punctuation as in the original poem. Do not adjust or rewrite anything to make it sound better or more correct.
Examples of how to quote two to three lines of poetry:
- "Life is real! Life is earnest! / And the grave is not its goal;" Henry Longfellow
- "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Percy Shelley
- "Does it dry up / Like a raising in the sun?" Langston Hughes
3. How to Quote Four or More Lines of Poetry
How you quote four or more lines of poetry differs from how you quote three or fewer lines of poetry. It is different because when you quote four or more lines of poetry, you must quote them as a block.
Here is how exactly to quote four or more lines of poetry. First, introduce the quote or provide the reader with some context on the quote you will unleash to them. Second, put a colon at the end of the sentence to show a quote is coming.
Third, create a line break (a new line) and press the "Tab" this will indent your quote (0.5-inch from the left margin) and distinguish it from the rest of your writing. Lastly, quote the poem you wanted to quote without adding any quotation marks.
Example 1 of how to quote four or more lines of poetry:
Langston Hughes' poem opens with a couple of rhetorical questions:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Example 2 of how to quote four or more lines of poetry
Maya Angelou's inspiring poem offers words of encouragement to the downtrodden:
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Example 3 of how to quote four or more lines of poetry
The poet John Donne, in his thought-inspiring poem, reveals the deep connection we have to humanity:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
You now know how exactly to quote a poem in an MLA essay. It is now to discover how to cite a poem in MLA. Citing is not the same thing as quoting. It is more complex. Check the section below to understand.
How to cite a poem in an MLA Paper or Essay
When you name, discuss, mention, or refer to a poem, it is best to cite it so that your reader can read more about it if they want to. Failure to properly cite a poem or any other work you use or discuss in your essay is wrong and is considered academic dishonesty. It will make your essay look like it is missing something and reduce your chances of getting an excellent grade (professors do not like poorly cited essays).
When citing a poem in your essay, you must cite it in-text and on the reference page.
Citing a poem in-text has a few rules that you need to follow. The most important rule is clearly stating the author's last name. The purpose of doing this is to enable the reader to quickly locate the author of the work and the associated source on your references page.
Follow the rules below to cite any poem in-text in your MLA essay properly.
A. How to cite a poem with no line numbers or page numbers
You can find a poem on a website or a published text without any lines or page numbers. The correct way to cite it is only by the author's last name. Do not count the lines or the pages manually for your in-text citation.
Example of how to cite a poem with no line numbers or page numbers
"Every man is a piece of the continent, / A part of the main." (Donne)
B. How to cite a poem with line numbers
Sometimes poems are published with line numbers on the side. This is often true in official poem collections. When you quote or talk about a poem with line numbers in your essay, your in-text citation must show the exact lines you have quoted or are talking about.
Your citation should begin with the author's last name followed by a comma and the exact lines you have quoted or are discussing. Once you cite a poem with line numbers in this manner, put line numbers only in parentheses in subsequent references to the same poem.
Example of how to cite a poem with line numbers
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could travel both" (Frost, lines 1-2).
C. How to cite a poem with page numbers
A poem can be published over several pages. If a poem is published over several pages but without line numbers, you should provide an in-text citation referencing the exact page number you have quoted or are talking about.
Your citation should begin with the author's last name and the page number. Unlike in the case of line numbers, you are not supposed to put a comma between the poet's last name and the page number.
Example of how to cite a poem with page numbers
"For they sweet love remembered such wealth brings, / That, then I scorn to change my state with kings." (Shakespeare 38).
D. How to cite a poem multiple times
When you cite a poem severally in the same paragraph, you don't need to repeat the entire in-text citation over and over again. You need to put only the line number or page number you are referring to in parentheses.
Example of how to cite a poem consecutively in the same paragraph
"And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could"
Citing a poem on the reference page MLA
Every poem you cite in-text should have the full citation on your references page. How you reference a poem on the references page depends on the source.
Poems can be found in many places (e.g., online, in a book, or in an anthology). The way you cite a poem you've found online is not the same you cite a poem you've found in a book.
A. How to cite a poem found online
When you find a poem online or on a website, there is a way you need to cite it. You must begin with the author's last name and then their first name. You need to follow the poet's name with the poem's name in parentheses. Check out the format below.
Online citation format:
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title." Year of publication. Title of the website, Website Publisher, Link. Accessed day month year.
Online citation example:
Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 29." 1609. Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45090/sonnet-29-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-mens-eyes. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
B. How to cite a poem from a book
When you find a poem in a book, there are rules you need to follow in citing it. The first two elements of the citation (the name and the title of the poem, will be formatted the same way as when citing a poem from an online source. The other elements are different, so the formatting is a bit different. Check out the format below.
Book citation format
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title." Book Title, Publisher. Year of publication, Page number/range.
Book citation example
Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 29." William Shakespeare Poem Collection, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 32.
C. How to cite a poem from an anthology
An anthology is a collection of poems from different authors. How you cite a poem from an anthology is not the same way you cite a poem from a book with poems from solely one author. Use the format below to cite a poem from an anthology.
Anthology citation format
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Work." Anthology Collection, edited by (first name and last name), edition (if applicable), volume (if applicable), Publisher, year of anthology publication, page number or page range.
Anthology citation example:
Hughes, William. "Dark Oceans." Collection of Modern South African Poems , edited by John Moore, Cape Town University Press, 2009, p. 77.
As we wind up this Super Guide...
If you made it this far, you are now conversant with how to quote poems in an MLA paper. You can now comfortably cite poems from different sources. We hope that the information we have shared with you should make it easy for you to quote and cite poems easily in your MLA essays.
- How to write a poem analysis essay.
- How to write an expository essay.
- How to write a rhetorical analysis essay.
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