To cite lines from a poem, use line numbers in parentheses at the end of the quotation. For the first reference, use the word “lines”: (lines 1-2). Thereafter use just the numbers: (12-13).
The opening lines of Frost’s “Fire and Ice” strike a conversational tone: “Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice” (lines 1-2).
Enclose quotations of three or fewer lines of poetry in quotation marks within your text, and indicate line breaks with a slash, as in the example just given.
When you quote four or more lines of poetry, set the quotation off from the text by indenting one inch and omit the quotation marks. Put the line numbers in parentheses after the final mark of punctuation.
In the second stanza of “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” Whitman turns the spider’s weaving into a metaphor for the activity of the human soul:
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul. (6-10)
NOTE: If any line of the poem takes up more than one line of your paper, carry the extra words to the next line of the paper and indent them an additional quarter inch, as in the previous example. Alternatively, you may indent the entire poem a little less than one inch to fit the long line.
Related topics:
Citing passages from short stories or novels
Citing passages from plays