how to quote a poem in an essay chicago style

Chicago/Turabian Citation Guide (17th Edition): Poetry

Author-Date
Bibliography & Sample Papers
Annotated Bibliography

About These Examples

The following examples are for the Notes-Bibliography system of Chicago/Turabian. This means that you are citing your courses using either footnotes or endnotes. If your teacher has asked you to cite your sources using in-text citations in brackets, visit this page to find out how to format these citations in the Author-Date system of Chicago/Turabian.

On This Page: Poetry

Poetry taken from an edited collection.

Poetry Taken From a Website

In-Text Citation Rules for Poetry

Abbreviating months.

In your works cited list, abbreviate months as follows:

January = Jan. February = Feb. March = Mar. April = Apr. May = May June = June July = July August = Aug. September = Sept. October = Oct. November = Nov. December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper.

Note : For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Author of Poem's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any , edited by Editor's First Name Last Name, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication, pp. Page Numbers of the Poem.

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook , pp. 78-79, 121-122

Poetry Taken from a Website

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Website, Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed Day Month Year site was visited .

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 121-122

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Poetry & Poets

Explore the beauty of poetry – discover the poet within

How To Quote Poetry Chicago Style

Quote poetry can be a tricky thing to do correctly. Citing poetry correctly is especially important when it comes to academic writing because it helps add to the credibility of the paper. When it comes to citing poetry, Chicago Style is one of the most popular forms of citation. This guide will walk you through how to correctly cite poetry in Chicago Style.

In-text Citation

When citing poetry in-text, provide two pieces of information—the author’s name and the line you are quoting. If the author’s name is not mentioned in the sentence, you should put the name in parentheses after the quotation. However, if the author’s name is mentioned in the sentence, you don’t need to include it. Here’s and example of both formats:

“Our city’s people find ways to keep going” (King).
As King states, “Our city’s people find ways to keep going”.

It’s also important to note that when quoting poetry, Chicago Style allows for line breaks in the quoted text. This means that you don’t need to include the slashes to indicate that a line break has been used.

Disambiguating Quotes

Sometimes it may be helpful to add an extra bit of information after a quotation in order to make its meaning more clear. When it comes to citing poetry Chicago Style allows for an endnote to be appended to the quote to provide further clarification. The information should be provided after the period that ends the sentence. Here’s a example: “Our city’s people find ways to keep going.”1 For this example the endnote could read: 1. King, line 15.

Bibliography Entries

When it comes to citing poetry Chicago Style requires bibliography entries for each source cited. The information concerning how to create a bibliography entry for a poem can be found in the Chicago Manual of style. Here is an example of what a bibliography entry for a poem in Chicago Style should look like: King, Martin Luther Jr. “The Dream.” Race and Education Project, edited by Chester S. Williams and Patricia A. Williams, University Press of America, 1981: 60-1

Short Quotations

Short quotations are defined as 20 words or less. For short quotations you don’t need to include a bibliography entry, but if you do choose to include one make sure to follow the same rules that are stated above.

Long Quotations

Long quotations are defined as 21 words or more. When it comes to citing long quotations in Chicago Style, the text of the quotation should be indented across from the regular margin. Here is an example of how the quotation looks after it’s been properly indented: Our city’s people find ways to keep going.2 2. King, line 15. It’s also important to note that for long quotations you do not need to include quotation marks.

Free Verse Poetry

When it comes to citing free verse poetry in Chicago Style there are a few extra rules that need to be followed. When citing free verse poetry, make sure to include the title of the poem and the line number instead of the page number in the bibliography entry.

Citing poetry correctly is important when it comes to credibility of a paper. Knowing how to cite poetry correctly in Chicago Style can save you valuable time. Be sure to keep the rules stated in this guide in mind when it comes to citing poetry Chicago Style.

Minnie Walters

Minnie Walters is a passionate writer and lover of poetry. She has a deep knowledge and appreciation for the work of famous poets such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more. She hopes you will also fall in love with poetry!

Chicago Citation Guide (17th Edition): Poetry

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Poetry Taken from a Website

1. Author's First Name Last Name, "Title of Poem," Title of Website, Name of Owner or Sponsor of the Website [if different from Title of Website], Date of copyright or modification or access, URL.

Bibliography:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Website. Name of Owner or Sponsor of the Website [if different from Title of Website]. Date of copyright or modification or access. URL.

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Table of Contents
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Go to 17th Ed.
17th edition

13: Quotations and Dialogue

13.1 Scope of this chapter—and where else to look
13.2 Quotations and modern scholarship
13.3 Giving credit and seeking permission
13.4 When to paraphrase rather than quote
13.5 When quotation and attribution is unnecessary
13.6 Ensuring accuracy of quotations
Permissible Changes to Quotations
13.7 Permissible changes to punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
13.8 Permissible changes to typography and layout
Quotations in Relation to Text
Run In or Set Off
13.9 Run-in versus block quotations
13.10 Choosing between run-in and block quotations
Assimilation into the Surrounding Text
13.11 Logical and grammatical assimilation
13.12 Integrating tenses and pronouns
Initial Capital or Lowercase Letter
13.13 Changing capitalization to suit syntax—an overview
13.14 Initial capital or lowercase—run-in quotations
13.15 Initial capital or lowercase—block quotations
13.16 Brackets to indicate a change in capitalization
Introductory Phrases and Punctuation
13.17 Colon preceding a quotation
13.18 Comma preceding a quotation
13.19 Period rather than colon preceding a quotation
Paragraphing
13.20 Block quotations of more than one paragraph
13.21 Block quotations beginning in text
13.22 Text following a block quotation
13.23 Setting off poetry
13.24 Uniform indention for poetry
13.25 Long lines and runovers in poetry
13.26 Quotation marks in poems
13.27 Run-in poetry quotations
Quotation Marks
Double or Single
13.28 Quotations and “quotes within quotes”
13.29 Quotation marks in block quotations
Run-In Quotations of More Than One Paragraph
13.30 Quotation marks across paragraphs
13.31 Quotations within quotations across paragraphs
13.32 Running in more than one stanza of poetry
13.33 Running in letters
Quotation Marks Omitted
13.34 Epigraphs
13.35 Decorative initials (“drop caps” and raised initials)
13.36 Maxims, questions, and the like
Speech, Dialogue, and Conversation
13.37 Direct discourse
13.38 Single-word speech
13.39 Faltering or interrupted speech
13.40 Alternatives to quotation marks
13.41 Unspoken discourse
13.42 Numerals in direct discourse
13.43 Indirect discourse
Drama, Discussions and Interviews, and Field Notes
13.44 Drama
13.45 Shared lines and runover lines in verse drama
13.46 Discussions and interviews
13.47 Field notes
13.48 Ellipses defined
13.49 Danger of skewing meaning
13.50 When not to use ellipsis points
13.51 Ellipses with periods
13.52 Ellipses with other punctuation
13.53 Deliberately incomplete sentence
13.54 Whole or partial paragraphs omitted
13.55 Ellipsis points in poetry and verse drama
13.56 Bracketed ellipses
Interpolations and Clarifications
13.57 Missing or illegible words
13.58 Bracketed clarifications
13.59 “Sic”
13.60 “Italics added”
13.61 Interpolations requiring quotation marks
Citing Sources in Text
13.62 Use of parentheses with in-text citations
13.63 Full in-text citation
13.64 The use of “ibid.” with subsequent in-text citations
13.65 Frequent reference to a single source cited in a note
Sources Following Run-In Quotations
13.66 Punctuation following source
13.67 Question mark or exclamation point preceding source
Sources Following Block Quotations
13.68 Punctuation preceding source
13.69 Parenthetical citations with poetry extracts
13.70 Shortened references to poetry extracts
Foreign-Language Quotations
13.71 Typographic style of foreign quotations
13.72 Whether translation is needed
13.73 Where to place translations
13.74 Source plus translation
13.75 Including original-language version in note
13.76 Crediting the translation
13.77 Adjusting translations
13.78 Editing translations
13.79 The sin of retranslation

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Writing Tips

How to Cite a Poem in Chicago Author–Date Referencing

3-minute read

26th March 2020

In an earlier post , we looked at how to cite a poem in Chicago footnote referencing. But what if you’re using the author–date version?

Here, we look at how to format the in-text citations and reference list entry for poems in Chicago author–date referencing.

In-Text Citations for a Poem

The basic format for citing any source in Chicago author–date referencing is to give the surname of the author and a date for the source in brackets .

For a poem in an edited book, for example, we would give the surname of the poem’s author and the year the edited book was published. If we were quoting from the poem, we would also include page numbers. Here’s an example:

School bells are described as ‘knelling classes to a close’ (Heaney 2009, 132).

But if you name the author in the text, you can omit this detail:

Heaney (2018, 132) describes school bells as ‘knelling classes to a close’.

For a poem found online, you would cite the year the webpage was published or last updated. If a webpage does not give a date for this, though, you should use the abbreviation ‘n.d.’ (short for ‘no date’) after a comma:

The poem challenges the stereotypical view of a Valentine’s gift (Duffy, n.d.).

Poems in a Chicago Reference List: Print Publications

The format for a poem in a Chicago reference list depends on how and where it was published. For print sources, this will usually be a book, a journal or magazine, or an edited collection, each of which has its own format:

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For a poem published as a standalone book or in an anthology with a single author, you would use the standard book format .
If a poem was published in a periodical, you would use the magazine/newspaper format or the journal article format (for periodicals with volume and issue numbers).
For poems published as part of an anthology or collection with several authors, you would cite it as a chapter from an edited book .

The most common of these print sources is the edited book format:

Author Surname, First Name. Year of Publication. ‘Title of Poem’. In Book , edited by Editor(s) name, page number(s). City: Publisher.

Here’s how the entry for the poem from the edited book above would look:

Heaney, Seamus. 2018. ‘Mid-Term Break’. In 100 Poems, edited by Seamus Heaney, 132. London: Faber and Faber.

Poems in a Chicago Reference List: Online

For a poem published online, the reference list entry should look like this:

Author Surname, First Name. Year of publication or revision. ‘Title of Page’. Publishing Organisation or Name of Website. Last modified/accessed date. URL.

If the webpage does not have a date of publication or last modification, give a date of accessed instead. For instance:

Duffy, Carol Ann. n.d. ‘Valentine’. Scottish Poetry Library. Accessed 3 February 2020. https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/valentine/.

We hope you’re now ready to cite poems using Chicago author–date referencing. But if you’d like an expert to check that your writing and referencing is error free, our expert editors are available 24/7 .

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How to Cite a Poem in APA, MLA, and Chicago Citation Styles

If you're like me, a good quote on writing from your choice writer at the end of a bad day can brighten your mood. I enjoy learning from these experiences, writing their words on sticky notes and putting them all around my writing space. The greats who came before us can teach us so much about the craft of poetry writing. We're lucky to live in a free information age that means many of us can benefit from writers currently creating works and filling our bookshelves with their collections.

I may not get banished from work because I wrote an inspirational line to cheer me up on my desk, but you could. Students must learn how to cite a poem to avoid plagiarizing poets and ensuring they get high grades.

Learn a few ti ps on how to cite a poem in this perfectl y crafted guide.

Citing a Poem in APA

Learning to cite a poem that has a proper works cited entry in APA style is an important skill. The basic guidelines appear similar to those used for other papers. However, a poem has a unique design that requires specialized citation. You must carefully discern how to begin referencing the poem. Note these items as you cite your poem. Some may be irrelevant to your specific assignment.

Title of poem
Publication year
Publisher name
Page numbers

A person holding a writing pad written ‘how do you cite in APA format?’

How Do You Cite a Poem from a Book in APA?

For this section, we'll use the APA 6th and 7th editions. APA guidelines state that a writer should create a reference based on where they found the poem, that is, its publisher (e.g., book, web page).

A writer must provide the author's last name, the publication year, and stanza in the in-text citation (e.g., Neruda, 1914, stanza 2).

How Do I Cite in APA Format?

APA guidelines dictate that you must use the author-date method for in-text citation. This means that a poet's last name and year published for your source must appear in the text, like, for instance, (Frost, 1968).

A complete reference for each source should appear in your "Works Cited" page(s) at the end of the paper.

Citing a Poem from a Book

If you take your poem citation from a book, you must use the following format.

Poet's Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Poem." Title of the Book: Subtitle (if any), edited by Editor's First Name Last Name, Edition (if provided and is not the first), Publisher's Name (frequently shortened), Year of Publication, pp. xx-xx.

Notebook with cover written ‘how do I cite poetry in MLA?’ placed on wooden surface

MLA In-text Citations for Poems

The main rules for citing a poem line are similar to those for quoting other sources. You must place the quoted text within quotation marks and cite the author's surname as well as the year published in brackets.

If provided, include the page number for your quoted passage.

Your Works Cited entry should begin with the poet's name with the title of the poem following in quotation marks. You should then include details about your source, where the poem was published.

The most commonly followed citation format is Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

How do You Cite a Stanza in a Poem?

In brief verse quotations, you must quote all or part of a line of verse and put it in quotation marks within the text.

Quoting Up to Three Lines of Poetry

You could also utilize two or three lines in a similar way. Using a slash with a space on each side to separate the lines (/).

A writer should also use two slashes to show a stanza break in a quote.

Should You Italicize Poem Titles?

Poem titles and those for short stories should go in quotation marks. You should italicize the title of a short story or poem collection. For instance, we'd cite Andre Dubus' "The Intruder," a short story appearing in his collection "Dancing After Hours" as, Dancing After Hours .

How to Quote Poetry in MLA Style

Let's briefly review the rules for quoting poetry using the MLA citation guidelines. If you are quoting two or three lines of poetry, you can show where the line breaks are by adding a slash between the lines as in the following example.

The poem opens with an allusion to Chaucer: "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land” (1-2).

So this tells us that the line ends with "breeding" and then we add the slash (surrounded by spaces) to indicate that there's a break there. If there's a stanza break (if you're jumping from one stanza to the next), you can add an extra slash to show that that's happening.

Use a slash to separate lines in a poetry quotation while making sure to mention the artist’s last name either in parentheses after quote or in your text. Show your reader the quote’s location, line numbers and all, or page number if the poem spans multiple pages. If you must quote poetry, make sure that you properly format the quotation –both in your works cited page in the in-text citation-to direct your audience to the correct source entry in the final reference list.

Whether you are citing two or three lines , remember to use the same capitalization, styling, and punctuation as in the original document.

Line Numbers and Page Numbers in In-text Citations

Do remember that if you are skipping words to jump from one place to the next, you have to add ellipses. We add the line numbers to our citation to make sure it meets the MLA style.

If you're going back and forth between , let's say, pages and line numbers in your essay, then you may indicate that your in text citation refers to lines. You could put the word ""lines or line" in front of the numbers. The latter applies if your citation is one long quotation derived from one line. This is something you should watch out for. Many students lose marks because of a simple mistake using this citation format.

But if you are constantly quoting from the same source and it's clear that these are line numbers, then you can simply omit the word "line(s)."

If you're quoting more than three lines of poetry, then you should use a block quote. A block quote in poetry is very similar to a regular block quote.

Remember to use an introductory sentence that ends with a colon before starting your quotation on a new line that’s indented half an inch from the left margin and has no quotation marks.

Citing four lines or more, that is, using block quotes means including every line break present in the quotation and maintaining the formatting as similar to the original as possible. For instance, include any unusual spaces if they are present in your block quote.

In-text citation for multiple poems written on a signboard next to an open road

In-text Citation for More than One Poem

When you cite more than one poem from the same author, make sure you mention the poem’s title.

You will often name the title and poet in your main text when you introduce a quote. Contrary to this, when an ambiguity exists about the poem you are referring to, introduce the author name and/or title using a parenthetical citation. This appears after your quote.

MLA Works Cited Entry for a Poem

You must remember that every in-text citation must have a bibliography entry. It is a good practice to create a cited list of your references as you input the in-text citation. This leaves less room for error if you forget about a citation and fail to note it as you go through your work, leaving it out of your works cited page.

Let's look at the MLA format to use for a works cited entry according to the MLA handbook.

Author of Poem's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, edited by Editor's First Name Last Name, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication, pp. Page Numbers of the Poem.

Jonathan Meyer/pexels

Citing a Poem in Chicago Citation Guide

We'll use the 17th edition to help you learn about citing a poem using the Chicago Style Guide. Check out the framework for the footnote and bibliography entries respectively.

Bibliography entry

Let's use The Road Not Taken , a poem by Robert Frost that has a famous line involving "yellow wood" to demonstrate these entries.

Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," in The Road Not Taken and Other Poems, Anniversary edition. (Penguin books: Penguin classics, 2015), 1.

Bibliography Entry

Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." In The Road Not Taken and Other Poems . Anniversary edition, 1-3. Penguin books: Penguin classics, 2015.

You must cite page numbers in each footnote. Add the page range for the chapter used in your bibliography entry.

Citing a poem found online, footnotes and bibliography written on a laptop screen

Karina Zhukovskaya/pexels

Citing a Poem Found Online in Chicago Style Guide

We'll follow the same framework and Robert Frost's poem to show you how to cite a poem you found online.

Bibliography

1. Footnote

Author's First Name Last Name, "Title of Poem," Title of Website, Name of Owner or Sponsor of the Website [if different from Title of Website], Date of copyright or modification or access, URL.

Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken,” Poetry Foundation, accessed March 30, 2023, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken .

2. Bibliography

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Website. Name of Owner or Sponsor of the Website [if different from Title of Website]. Date of copyright or modification or access. URL.

Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken .

Six people putting in hands in the middle for team spirit

Luana Freitas/pexels

Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation is a birth child of American literary society. It seeks to boost lyricism and poetry across the country. You could find a poem online from this source that meets your taste. Whether your favorite poet focuses on long poems with four or more lines in each stanza, they'll definitely have some sweet poems that may pique your interest.

The Foundation was created from Poetry magazine that runs to date. It saw a major boost in 2003 when philanthropist Ruth Lilly gifted them with a $200 million cheque!

Remember that a citation format will change with time as experts make adjustments. Note the citation style and edition in your assignment before you start writing your paper. Keeping yourself updated on the novel citation edition, whether in the MLA format or another, could make all the difference when a poem appears as your assignment.

Here's a parting shot to help you on your journey to learn how to cite a poem.

“ Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility. ”

How to Quote Poetry in an Essay

Last Updated: June 1, 2023 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 65,108 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.

Quoting Long and Short Passages

For instance, you could introduce your quotation in this way: As Lord Byron wrote, "...."
Epigraphs are short quotations that go at the beginning of a paper or heading, that sort of introduce your reader to the topic of your paper.

So if you're using the first two lines of Lord Byron's poem "She Walks in Beauty," it would look like the following quotation: As Lord Byron writes in his poem "She Walks in Beauty," "She walks in beauty like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies." [3] X Research source
Note that you add a spaces around the slash.

When making a longer quote, it's better to introduce it with a full sentence and a colon rather than a phrase. Also, you don't use quotation marks with a block quote.

For MLA style, a long quote from Byron's poem would follow this format: Lord Byron begins the poem "She Walks in Beauty" with these four lines: She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes.

Step 5 Add ellipses to show you've removed words.

For example, if you wanted to take "in beauty" out of the first line of Byron's poem, it would look like the following quotation: "She walks ... like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies."

Step 6 Incorporate the quote into your argument.

For example, if you quoted the first two lines of Byron's poem, you could use it to talk about Byron's use of similes.

Creating an In-Text Citation in MLA Style

Step 1 Envelope the citation in parentheses.

For a short quote, use this format: As Lord Byron writes in his poem "She Walks in Beauty," "She walks in beauty like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies" (citation).
Follow this example for a blockquote: Lord Byron begins the poem "She Walks in Beauty" with these four lines: She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes. (citation)

Step 2 Decide if you need to include the author’s name in the citation.

Add the name in like the following quote: The poem "She Walks in Beauty" begins with the following lines: "She walks in beauty like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies" (Byron 1-2).
If the poem is anonymous or uncredited, such as “I Eat My Peas with Honey,” then use a shortened form of the title: ("I Eat" 1-2) [8] X Research source

Follow this example: The poem "She Walks in Beauty" begins with the following lines: "She walks in beauty like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies" (Byron 1-2).
If you skip a line, use a comma to separate the the numbers. For instance, if you use lines 1 and 3, it would look like this example: (Byron 1, 3).

Creating an End Reference in MLA Style

Step 1 Begin with the author of the poem.

The beginning of the citation would follow this format: Byron, George Gordon, Lord.
If the poem's author is anonymous, start with the title of the poem.

Continue the citation in this manner: Byron, George Gordon, Lord. "She Walks in Beauty."
Be sure to capitalize important words in the title.

Step 3 Place the title of the container next.

The citation would continue in this way, since this poem is from the Poetry Foundation: Byron, George Gordon, Lord. "She Walks in Beauty." Poetry Foundation,

Step 4 Add other contributors, the volume, and the issue.

This particular citation has none of these attributes, so leave them blank.

Here's how the citation looks so far: Byron, George Gordon, Lord. "She Walks in Beauty." Poetry Foundation, Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute,

If you were to add a date, it would look like the following citation: Byron, George Gordon, Lord. "She Walks in Beauty." Poetry Foundation, Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, 2 August 2016,

Here's the final citation: Byron, George Gordon, Lord. "She Walks in Beauty." Poetry Foundation, Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43844.
Don't add "http://" or "https://" before the web address.

Creating References and In-Text Citations in Chicago and APA

Step 1 Format an in-text citation in APA.

For example, with APA, the in-text citation would appear this way: "She walks in beauty like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies" (Byron 1-2).
Just like MLA, you'll use the author's name and line numbers. However, if the poem doesn't have line numbers, you can just use an abbreviation of the title: (Byron "She Walks").

Step 2 Style your reference properly in APA.

For APA, use this format with the example from throughout this article: Byron, G. G. (1813). "She Walks in Beauty." Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43844
Note that APA uses initials rather than full first and middle names. This structure is in place to discourage gender bias.

Step 3 Format an in-text citation in Chicago.

In this case, the footnote would look like the following example: 1. Byron, George Gordon, Lord, "She Walks in Beauty," Poetry Foundation, accessed August 2, 2016, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43844.
You can also add a publication date ("Last modified July 2, 2016,") before the access date.

For Chicago, use this format: Byron, George Gordon, Lord. "She Walks in Beauty." Poetry Foundation. Accessed August 2, 2016. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43844.
Once again, you can add a publication date ("Last modified July 2, 2016,") before the access date if it has it.

Step 5 Base your citation on the format where you found the poem.

If you need more information on these styles, review the MLA Handbook, Eighth Edition ; The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition ; the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition ; or Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL), which has information on all three.

Expert Q&A

Always proofread quotations. Double-check that your quotations are accurate and that you have not made any changes to the text when you transcribed it into your paper. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

↑ http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/eng/resources/how-to-quote-poetry-in-english-papers/
↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43844
↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42908/i-eat-my-peas-with-honey
↑ http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~simpsone/Connections/Writing/Quote/quote2.html
↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/22/
↑ https://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-8/mla-7-vs-mla-8/
↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/05/

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Chicago Style Guide - 17th Edition

Chicago Style
Title Page and Pagination
Quotations and Signal Phrases
Bibliography
Chicago's Citation Parts
Articles - Online
Articles - Print
Blogs and Social Media
Government Publications
Elders & Knowledge Keepers
Other Sources
Secondary Sources
Generative AI Tools (e.g., ChatGPT, DALL·E 2)
Author/Date (Scientific) System
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Resources to Help Avoid Plagiarism

Camosun Academic Integrity Guide
Camosun Plagiarism Guide
Purdue OWL - Paraphrase: Write It In Your Own Words
Purdue OWL - Avoiding Plagiarism
SFU Library - Plagiarism Tutorial

Chicago Manual of Style - Online

Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new window Access to the 17th edition of Chicago writing and citation style guides. Includes the full contents, a quick guide, help & tools, Q&A, etc.

A quotation is a collection spoken or written words repeated in speech or text by someone other than the original speaker or author. Quoting the work and ideas of others in your assignments helps to demonstrate that you have undertaken some scholarly research as well as helps establish credibility for your topic or position. In order to avoid plagiarism, you must acknowledge all the resources (oral, print, and electronic) that you used in your research.

Short Quotations

A quotation of four or less lines should be cited within quotation marks (appearing at the beginning and end of the quote). The end punctuation of the quotation (e.g., period, question mark, exclamation mark) should be contained within the quotation marks . The footnote should be inserted after the closing quotation mark .

Block Quotations

Quotations of five or more lines should be put into “ blocked ” formatting. Blocked quotations require no quotation marks ; however, to properly format the quotation you need to:

Single-space the quotation (this will visually contrast with the double-spacing of the rest of your paper);
Indent each line of the quotation ½ inch from the left margin;
Create an extra line of space immediately before and after the quotation;
Add the footnote at the end of the quote .

Quoting and Paraphrasing – Signal Phrases

Signal Phrases

Signal phrases are ways to lead into or introduce a source or quote.

When introducing your sources, Chicago style uses verbs in the present tense (for details, see sec. 5.129 of The Chicago Manual of Style. 17 th ed. and Chicago Style Q & A ).

A signal phrase often names the author of the source and provides context . Include:

the full name of the author the first time you refer to them – (Jean Barman says " . . . " 14 ).
the author's last name only in subsequent references – (Barman emphasizes " . . . " 16 ).

Examples of Signal Phrases

Try one of these signal phrases to create a smooth transition in your text:

Historian Sylvia Van Kirk insists that ". . ." 1
Andrew Mclaughlin suggests ". . ." 6
Van Kirk points out ". . ." 9
Mclaughlin reports ". . ." 12

Other signal words include:

demonstrates

This information on signal phrases has been adapted from: Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. A Canadian Writer's Reference. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012.

how to quote a poem in an essay chicago style

How to avoid plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism

When writing an academic paper, you must acknowledge all the resources (oral, print, or web) that you used in your research. Not only does this allow your instructor to locate the sources you mention, it prevents you from being accused of plagiarism . In most instances, plagiarism is unintentional; it can be confusing to know what to cite. In general, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Have you taken an exact quote from your original source?

If yes, then you need to quote the source and provide a page number in your in-text citation. You must give them credit.

Have you paraphrased from your original source?

If yes, then you still must provide citation information. In Chicago and MLA styles you must provide a page number. In APA, you don't have to provide page numbers though it is recommended.

You include information that you think is “common knowledge” such as: Victoria is the Capital of British Columbia. Do you need to cite this information?

No, you do not need to cite information that is considered "common knowledge."

Is it plagiarism to cut and paste from an electronic document without acknowledging the source?

Absolutely. Just because it is easy to do, doesn't make it right. Cite the source!

You’ve added a statistic found on the Statistics Canada website. Since it is a government site, you do not need to cite the source. Is that correct?

No, it is not. Even government information must be cited.

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How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

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 quoted text is enclosed in quotation marks or formatted as a block quote
The original author is correctly cited
The text is identical to the original

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 .

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. 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 .

Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin, 1859, p. 510) .
Darwin (1859) explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (p. 510) .

Complete guide to APA

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.

Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin 510) .
Darwin explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (510) .

Complete guide to MLA

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.

Complete guide to Chicago style

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

Missing commas and periods
Incorrect usage of “et al.”
Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
Missing reference entries

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:

Add an introductory sentence
Use an introductory signal phrase
Integrate the quote into your own sentence

The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.

Introductory sentence

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.

In Denmark, a recent poll shows that: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
In Denmark, a recent poll shows that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
Levring (2018) reports that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Introductory signal phrase

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.

According to a recent poll, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
As Levring (2018) explains, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Integrated into your own sentence

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 .

A recent poll suggests that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
Levring (2018) reports that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (p. 3).

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.

Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “ “ Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, ” he told me, “ just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” ” (Fitzgerald 1).
Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” (Fitzgerald 1).
Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (Fitzgerald 1).
Carraway begins by quoting his father’s invocation to “remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1).

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.

Shortening a 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.

Altering a quote

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.

When focusing on language

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.

When giving evidence

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 presenting an author’s position or definition

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.

ChatGPT vs human editor
ChatGPT citations
Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
Using ChatGPT for your studies
What is ChatGPT?
Chicago style
Paraphrasing
Critical thinking

Plagiarism

Types of plagiarism
Self-plagiarism
Avoiding plagiarism
Academic integrity
Consequences of plagiarism
Common knowledge

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:

To analyze the author’s language (e.g., in a literary analysis essay )
To give evidence from primary sources
To accurately present a precise definition or argument

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:

APA block quotes are 40 words or longer.
MLA block quotes are more than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry.
Chicago block quotes are longer than 100 words.

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:

APA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).
MLA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

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.

Cite this Scribbr article

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 March 8, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-quote/

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Writing Tips

A Guide to Source Titles in Chicago Referencing

4-minute read

9th October 2020

If you’re using the Chicago Manual of Style , or even just the referencing styles it sets out, you’ll need to know how to write the titles of other works (e.g., books, articles, web pages). And to help you with this, we’re looking at how to write source titles in Chicago referencing .

How to Capitalize Source Titles in Chicago Style

In Chicago referencing, when you mention a source or publication in the main text of your work or in the references, it should use headline-style capitalization . Also known as title case, this involves capitalizing:

The first word in the title and (if relevant) subtitle.
Any nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives.
Any conjunctions other than “and,” “but,” “for,” “or” and “nor.”

You can see examples of titles capitalized like this below:

David Olusoga is known for books such as Black and British: A Forgotten History and The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism . But he has also produced several television programs, including The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files and A House Through Time .

The Chicago Manual of Style notes that some editors prefer to use sentence-style capitalization . As such, if you’re writing for a publisher or journal, you may want to check which style to use. Usually, though, “Chicago style” means using title case and capitalizing titles as shown above.

Italics or Quote Marks?

In the examples above, we’ve italicized all the source titles. You should do this in Chicago style for all full-length sources (i.e., sources published as standalone works), including:

Books, periodicals (e.g., journals, newspapers), and blogs.
Poems, plays, and pamphlets published as standalone works.
Films, televisions shows, radio series, video games, and podcasts.
Standalone musical works (e.g., operas, pop albums).
Paintings, statues, and other works of art.

However, Chicago places titles of shorter works in quote marks, including:

Articles from periodicals and chapters from books.
Single poems or plays from a collection.
Episodes from a television, radio, or podcast series.
Songs and other short recordings.
Blog posts or single pages from websites.

There are even a few cases where you should write titles with no italics or quote marks. The most notable of these exceptions are websites (e.g., Vox, Project Gutenberg), instrumental music (e.g., Bach’s Mass in B Minor) and classic works of art where the creator is unknown (e.g., the Venus de Milo).

Non-English Titles in Chicago Referencing

The rules above change slightly for works in languages other than English. The biggest difference here is that Chicago suggests writing non-English titles using sentence-style capitalization:

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Paul Ricoeur’s first published work was Gabriel Marcel et Karl Jaspers: Philosophie du mystère et philosophie du paradoxe (1947).

Here, we only capitalize the proper nouns ( Gabriel Marcel , Karl Jaspers ) and first word of the subtitle ( Philosophie ) since the title is in French.

And the rules get even more confusing when you include an English translation of a non-English title in your work! In these cases, you should:

Use sentence case and Roman type (i.e., no italics or quote marks) for translated titles when the work has never been published in English.
Use title case and italics (standalone works) or quote marks (shorter works) for titles if the work has been published in translation.

You can see the difference between these below:

Paul Ricoeur’s first published work was Gabriel Marcel et Karl Jaspers: Philosophie du mystère et philosophie du paradoxe (Gabriel Marcel and Karl Jaspers: Philosophy of mystery and philosophy of paradox). Arguably his last major work, meanwhile, was Vivant jusqu’à la mort (Living Up to Death , published in translation in 2009) .

Here, the first source mentioned has not been published as an English translation. As such, we show this by giving the English title in sentence case without italics. But the second work has been published in translation in English, so we give the translated title in title case and italics.

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If you’re using Chicago referencing in an essay (or the Chicago Manual of Style in general) and need to be sure your document is clear and correct, we have expert editors and proofreaders ready to help.

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How do I reference a poem, using Chicago style, that is part of an edited collection?

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The format to follow is similar to a book chapter citation, for example, a poem from the edited collection, Seven Centuries of Poetry in English would look like this:

First footnote:

3. Seamus Heaney, "The Railway Children," Seven Centuries of Poetry in English , ed. John Leonard, 5th ed (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2003), lines 7-8.

Subsequent footnotes:

5. Heaney, "The Railway Children," 11.

Note: you can omit "line" or "lines" from the shortened footnote as long as the numbering you're using has been explained in the first footnote.

Bibliography:

Heaney, Seamus. "The Railway Children." Seven Centuries of Poetry in English , edited by John Leonard. 5th ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Further examples can be found in the complete Chicago Manual of Style - see links below.

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Citing editions of classic English poems and plays
Short forms for citing classic English poems and plays
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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Formatting Quotations

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (8 th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

When you directly quote the works of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on their length. Below are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into your paper. Please note that all pages in MLA should be double-spaced .

Short quotations

To indicate short quotations (four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page number (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the in-text citation, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation.

Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

For example, when quoting short passages of prose, use the following examples:

When using short (fewer than three lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should precede and follow the slash). If a stanza break occurs during the quotation, use a double slash ( // ).

Long quotations

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 punctuation mark . When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

For example, when citing more than four lines of prose, use the following examples :

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

When citing long sections of poetry (four lines of verse or more), keep formatting as close to the original as possible.

In his poem "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father:

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We Romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. (qtd. in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)

When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines. If you cite more than one paragraph, the first line of the second paragraph should be indented an extra 1/4 inch to denote a new paragraph:

In "American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues,

Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . .

From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widening number of citizens into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)

Adding or omitting words in quotations

If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text:

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipses, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example:

Please note that brackets are not needed around ellipses unless they would add clarity.

When omitting words from poetry quotations, use a standard three-period ellipses; however, when omitting one or more full lines of poetry, space several periods to about the length of a complete line in the poem:

The Chicago Manual of Style Guide: Quoting and Paraphrasing

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Reference Works
Conference Papers, Interviews, & Personal Communications
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Artificial Intelligence & Chatbots
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Quoting and Paraphrasing
Author-Date vs. Notes and Bibliography
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Direct Quotes

Incorporate text less than 100 words into your text
Place the quote in quotation marks
Include page reference in parenthesis after quotation mark
If quotation ends the sentence place parenthetical reference at end including page reference

While Fierro, Moreales, and Alvarez (2011) found that "no variables regarding the consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs associated with the experiences of being only a victim of road rage" (191), they did find a correlation with the consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs and being a perpetrator of road rage incidences.

While several studies have found a connection between alcohol and illicit drug consumption and perpetrating a road rage incident (Butters 2005, Ashbridge, 2006), one study (Fierro, Moreales, and Alvarez, 2011) has found "no variables regarding the consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs associated with the experiences of being only a victim of road rage." (191)

Quotation over 100 words

Start a new paragraph
Enter text as a free-standing block of text
Indent text on left margin by one half inch
Double space
Place the reference with page number(s) at the end of the quote after punctuation
Do not use quotation marks

Older men's somewhat delayed reduction in alcohol consumption relative to older women highlights the importance of health care providers continuing to monitor men's alcohol consumption. More broadly, out finding counter the widespread assumption that alcohol consumption and drinking problems invariably and rapidly decline past middle age and thus have limited relevance as late-life health issues, For many individuals, use of alcohol remains a consistent and important aspect of health status and social functioning even as they advance into later old age. (Brennan, Schutte, Moos, and Moos, 2011, 319)

Don't rely too heavily on the use of quotes in your paper. Rather, employ the technique of rephrasing the cited idea into you own words.

Please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for further information on quotation style.

Paraphrasing

Rephrasing another's ideas into you own words is known as paraphrasing.

With paraphrasing you still do need to site the original resource; however, if you are borrowing heavily from an author but still using you own words, add a reference. You are citing the ideas! Give credit where credit is due.

Secondary or Indirect Sources

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Poem in MLA

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.

What You Need

Before you can create your poem citation, you will need to gather information on your source. If available, find:

Poet’s first and last name
Line, page number, or page range
Title of the poem
Year of the original and/or source publication
Title of the book of poetry it’s in
Title of the website it’s on
Title of the anthology it’s in
Name of the publishing company or website publisher
URL (if applicable – online sources only)
Editor(s) first and last name(s) (if applicable – anthologies only)

Citing a Poem Found Online

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:

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. Place a period after the title of the poem within the quotation marks. The title of the poem should be capitalized in title case (using capital letters only at the beginning of principal words).
Put the numerical year of the poem’s original publication. You may have to do research beyond your online source for the poem to find this information. Follow the numerical year with a period.
Put the title of the website in italics. Be sure to use title case capitalization here again. Follow the website title with a comma.
Put the name of the website publisher in normal text (not italicized), using title case capitalization. Follow with a comma.
Put the URL for your web source, without including https:// at the beginning. Follow the URL with a period.
Write the word “Accessed” (with a capital A, without the quotation marks) followed by the date you looked up the web resource. The format for the date should be: the numerical day, capitalized and spelled-out month, and full numerical year. Be sure to place a period after the year to end your citation. The date should not include commas. So, for example, if the date you accessed your web source was March 12, 2020, you would finish your citation with “Accessed 12 Mar. 2020.” The access date is supplemental and may not always need to be included.

Citing a Poem from a Book

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.

Put the title of the book where you read the poem in italics and title case, followed by a comma.
Put the name of the publishing company in normal text (not italicized) as it is capitalized in the book, followed by a comma. This should be in title case since it is a proper noun. You do not need to include the location of the publisher.
Put the numerical year of the book’s publication (which may be different from the year of the poem’s original publication), followed by a comma.
Provide the page number(s) for the poem you are citing using “p.” or “pp.” and the page number or page range. For example, if the poem is on page 26, put p. 26. If the poem spreads across two or more pages, use “pp.” For example, if the poem is from page 26-29, put pp. 26-29. Follow the page number with a period to end your citation.

Citing a Poem from an Anthology

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.

Put the title of the anthology where you found the poem in italics and title case, followed by a comma.
For two editors, separate the names with the word “and” rather than an ampersand.
For three or more editors, use commas to separate each editor’s name, using “and” only between the last two editors.
If applicable to the anthology, include the book’s edition (e.g., 4th ed.) followed by a comma.
If applicable to the anthology, include the book’s volume number (e.g., vol. 2) followed by a comma.
Put the name of the publishing company in normal text (not italicized) as it is capitalized in the anthology, followed by a comma. You do not need to include the location of the publisher.

In-Text Citations

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:

The poet’s last name
The line number(s) or page number of the poem you are referencing

(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).

Quoting Up to Three Lines of Poetry

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).

Quoting Four or More Lines of Poetry

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:

In most cases, you will use a colon (:) at the end of the sentence before you begin your direct quote from the poem.
After the sentence introducing the quote, leave an empty line before beginning the quote.
You must separate a long quote from the rest of your paper by using a half-inch indent from the left throughout the quote.
Instead of using a “ / ” to separate the lines of poetry, try to follow the original format of the poem as closely as possible.
If a line is too long to fit across the page, use a hanging indent, so that the remainder of the line is more indented than the rest of the block quote.
Place your in-text citation in parentheses at the end of the quote, following the last period (or other punctuation) of the quote and without punctuation after the closing parentheses. If the citation will not fit on the line, add it to the following line on the right-hand side of the page.

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:

If you are quoting two or three lines of a poem, the quote should be placed within double quotation marks with a slash as a line separator, with one space on either side. (Stanzas should be separated with a double slash.) The quote should be followed by the author’s last name and the line numbers within parentheses.
If the author’s name is already mentioned in text, only the line number should be inserted within parentheses next to the quotation.
If there is no line number available for the poem, page numbers can be used.

William Wordsworth wrote, “The storm came on before its time: / She wandered up and down” (lines 11-12).

If you are quoting four or more lines of a poem, your quote should be an indented block quote rather than enclosed within quotation marks.
A colon should be placed at the end of the introductory text with a blank line following it.
The full block quote should be indented a half inch throughout and match its original formatting as closely as possible.
The author’s last name and line numbers should be placed at the end of the quotation within parentheses. The end period should be placed before the source.

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.

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How to Cite a Poem in Chicago Footnote Referencing
But how do you cite a poem? Here, we'll look at how to format the footnote citation and reference list entry for a poem in Chicago referencing. Footnote Citations for Poems. Chicago footnote referencing, as set out in the Chicago Manual of Style, uses superscript numbers in text (e.g., 1, 2, 3) that point to a footnote citation. What that ...
Chicago/Turabian Citation Guide (17th Edition): Poetry
The Broadview Introduction to Literature: Poetry, edited by Lisa Chalykoff, Neta Gordon, and Paul Lumsden, Broadview Press, 2013, pp. 48-49. Note: If your quotation contains more than one line from the poem use forward slashes (/) between each line of the poem. For line breaks that occur between stanzas, use a double forward slash (//).
How To Quote Poetry Chicago Style
When it comes to citing poetry Chicago Style allows for an endnote to be appended to the quote to provide further clarification. The information should be provided after the period that ends the sentence. Here's a example: "Our city's people find ways to keep going."1. For this example the endnote could read:
LibGuides: Chicago Citation Guide (17th Edition): Poetry
Footnote:. 1. Author's First Name Last Name, "Title of Poem," in Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, Edition if given and is not first edition, ed. Editor's First Name Last Name (Place of publication: Publisher, Year), Page Number. Bibliography Entry: Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." In Title of Book: Subtitle if Any.Edition if given and is not first edition, edited by Editor's ...
General Format
A prose quotation of five or more lines, or more than 100 words, should be blocked. CMOS recommends blocking two or more lines of poetry. A blocked quotation does not get enclosed in quotation marks. A blocked quotation must always begin a new line. Blocked quotations should be indented with the word processor's indention tool.
Chicago In-text Citations
Option 1: Author-date in-text citations. Author-date style places citations directly in the text in parentheses. In-text citations include the author's last name, the year of publication, and if applicable, a page number or page range: This style of Chicago in-text citation looks the same for every type of source.
Quotations and Block Quotes in Chicago Referencing
Hi there! The Chicago Manual of Style suggests that, for in-text citations of poems of more than three lines, you should follow the rules for a long quotation given in our article here. For any poem or poem extract of two or more stanzas, use a uniform left indent; if the poem is shorter, center align it on the page.
Chicago poem citation generator & examples
Published February 9, 2021. Updated August 5, 2021. To cite a poem in Chicago style, you need to know basic information including the poem's title, how the poem is organized (act, line, stanza, etc.), the author's name, the title of the book or anthology in which the poem appears, the book publication date, the publisher's name, and the place of publication.
13: Quotations and Dialogue
13.30 Quotation marks across paragraphs. 13.31 Quotations within quotations across paragraphs. 13.32 Running in more than one stanza of poetry. 13.33 Running in letters. Quotation Marks Omitted. 13.34 Epigraphs. 13.35 Decorative initials ("drop caps" and raised initials) 13.36 Maxims, questions, and the like.
How to Cite a Poem in Chicago Author-Date Referencing
The basic format for citing any source in Chicago author-date referencing is to give the surname of the author and a date for the source in brackets. For a poem in an edited book, for example, we would give the surname of the poem's author and the year the edited book was published. If we were quoting from the poem, we would also include ...
How to Cite a Poem in APA, MLA, and Chicago Manual of Style
1. Author's First Name Last Name, "Title of Poem," in Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, Edition if given and is not first edition, ed. Editor's First Name Last Name (Place of publication: Publisher, Year), Page Number. Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," in The Road Not Taken and Other Poems, Anniversary edition.
How to Quote Poetry in an Essay (with Pictures)
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.
Quotations and Signal Phrases
Signal Phrases. Signal phrases are ways to lead into or introduce a source or quote.. When introducing your sources, Chicago style uses verbs in the present tense (for details, see sec. 5.129 of The Chicago Manual of Style. 17 th ed. and Chicago Style Q & A).. A signal phrase often names the author of the source and provides context. Include: the full name of the author the first time you ...
Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition
NB Sample Paper. In addition to consulting The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) for more information, students may also find it useful to consult Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (8th edition). This manual, which presents what is commonly known as the "Turabian" citation style, follows ...
How to Cite a Poem in MLA
Poem in a book. If the poem is from a collection of the poet's work, add the name of the book in italics; the publisher; the year; and the page or page range on which the poem appears. MLA format. Author last name, First name. " Poem Title .". Book Title, Publisher, Year, Page number (s). MLA Works Cited entry.
Style and Formatting Guide for Citing a Work of Poetry
Include the author's name, the title(s) of the poem(s), and the line number(s) in the text (for better source inte-gration) or within a parenthetical citation. In quoting four or more lines, begin the quotation on a new line indented one inch from the left margin, and reproduce each line of the poem as it appears in your source, double ...
How to Quote
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.
A Guide to Source Titles in Chicago Referencing
In the examples above, we've italicized all the source titles. You should do this in Chicago style for all full-length sources (i.e., sources published as standalone works), including: Books, periodicals (e.g., journals, newspapers), and blogs. Poems, plays, and pamphlets published as standalone works. Films, televisions shows, radio series ...
How do I reference a poem, using Chicago style, that is part of an
The format to follow is similar to a book chapter citation, for example, a poem from the edited collection, Seven Centuries of Poetry in English would look like this: First footnote: 3. Seamus Heaney, "The Railway Children," Seven Centuries of Poetry in English, ed. John Leonard, 5th ed (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2003), lines 7-8.
MLA Formatting Quotations
To indicate short quotations (four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page number (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the in-text citation, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page.
The Chicago Manual of Style Guide: Quoting and Paraphrasing
Direct Quotes. Incorporate text less than 100 words into your text; Place the quote in quotation marks; ... Please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for further information on quotation style. Paraphrasing. Rephrasing another's ideas into you own words is known as paraphrasing.
How to Cite a Poem in MLA
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.
Tips on Citing a Poem in MLA Style
To cite a poem in an essay, you include quotation marks around a short quote or three lines or less. You separate the lines using a forward slash (/) between the stanzas. For a block quote, or 4 lines or more, separate the quote from the rest of the text with a 5-inch margin. You lead into the quote with a lead-in sentence.

Chicago/Turabian Citation Guide (17th Edition): Poetry

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