Poetry MLA Citations

Poetry MLA Citations Review

​Why cite?

When you quote poetry, you have to properly format the quotation and the in-text citation, in order to direct the reader to the correct source entry in the Works Cited list.

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​Separate lines in a poetry quotation with a slash, and include the poet’s last name either in your text or in parentheses after the quote. To show the location of the quote, include line numbers (if specified in the text) or a page number (if the poem does not have numbered lines).

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​How to Quote Poetry in MLA

​When you quote a single line of a poem (or part of a line), simply put it in quotation marks as you would for any other quote. For quotations of multiple lines, there are some specific formatting requirements.

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​"Line from the poem" (Poet's last name, line number[s]s).

Multiple Select

Which of the following has quoted line 14 from the poem titled "The Mansion on the Hill," which was written by Michael Scott?

• "Everyone lived on the mansion on the hill" (Michael Scott, line 14).

• "Everyone lived on the mansion on the hill" (line 14).

• Michael Scott wrote "Everyone lived on the mansion on the hill" (line 14).

• "Everyone lived on the mansion on the hill" (Scott, line 14).

• "Everyone lived on the mansion on the hill" ("The Mansion on the Hill" line 14).

​2-3 Lines of a Poem with a Line Break

​If you quote two or three lines, use a forward slash to mark the line breaks. Put a space before and after the slash. Make sure to use the same punctuation, capitalization, and styling as in the original text.

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​Example:

​Mahon writes that “Deep in the grounds of a burnt-out hotel, / Among the bathtubs and the washbasins / A thousand mushrooms crowd to a keyhole" (lines 5-6).