Students, critics and writers often quote poetry while writing essays, research, articles and books or when giving a speech, reading or presentation. Sure, guidelines from the Modern Language Association (MLA) and Associated Press (AP) are available for help, but correctly quoting a poem depends on how much you're using. In this article we will teach you how to quote a poem using it in its entirety or just a part in the appropriate format, and add it to your bibliography.
Steps
Method 1 of 4: Quoting the Exact Words, Verses and Phrases from the Poems
Step 1. Use quotation marks at the beginning and end of the word, verse or phrase you are quoting
For example, write "I love thee freely" when quoting a line from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem.
Step 2. Mention the verse of the poem you are quoting in parentheses at the end
Thus, for the example above, the quote would become: "I love thee freely" (7) when you use the line from the poem.
Step 3. Put your punctuation outside the parenthesis when the quote closes the sentence, for example, you could write:
Barrett Browning speaks of love and freedom when she says "I love thee freely" (7).
Method 2 of 4: Quoting Consecutive Verses of a Poem
Step 1. Use the backslash, also called a slanted slash, when quoting consecutive lines of a poem in your essay
Put the backslash to indicate the verse division of the poem. For example, you might write: "I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; / I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise" when quoting consecutive lines from a Barrett Browning poem
Step 2. Indicate the lines you are quoting in parentheses
For example, in the example verses 7 and 8 of the poem are used, so both must be mentioned.
Step 3. Use a hyphen to indicate the first and last verse quoted
For example, the Barrett Browning quote would look like this: (7-8).
Method 3 of 4: Use a Quote Block to quote a Poem
Step 1. Quote 4 or more consecutive lines of a poem without quotes, but by detaching them from the text you are writing
A blockquote is also often referred to as a long quote.
Step 2. Introduce the quote in your own words
This will connect the poem with what you talk about in the essay, or in the article.
Close your introduction with a colon, for example, by writing Barrett Browning's poem and preparing the quotation block, you could say: Barrett Browning shares her thoughts on love here:
Step 3. Start the quote block on the next line after your introduction
It must detach itself from the body of the text.
Step 4. Re-enter twice
The entire quotation block must be aligned with the second indent in the text. This will give your quote block a feeling of detachment.
Step 5. Use the same punctuation as the original poem
Do not use reverse bars. Instead, copy the lines of the poem you are quoting at the same time.
Step 6. Quote the verses of the entire quotation block at the end of the last verse, without punctuation
For example, if you quote several consecutive lines of Barrett Browning's poem, after the quote block you must put: (7-11) without punctuation.
Method 4 of 4: Quoting a Poem in a Speech
Step 1. Mention the title of the poem and the author before reading it in its entirety or an excerpt
For example: As Elisabeth Barrett Browning says in her sonnet …
Step 2. First read the poem or its excerpt, then its attribution
This will be more spectacular, especially if the author is not well known and his words are very powerful.
Step 3. Quote poem and author each time you use all or part of the text
Even if you read the entire poem as part of the speech, make a further reference if you use another verse later.
Advice
- Cite the poem you used in your essay or research at the end of the work, in the bibliography or on the cited works page using the MLA format or whatever you were asked for.
- Find out if you need to use a specific style when citing poems or other reference materials. Professors, editors and publishing houses could follow the MLA, AP or personal style.
