how to quote lines of a poem in an essay

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MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

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Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.

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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Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, quoting plays and poetry in mla.

• © 2023 by Angela Eward-Mangione - Hillsborough Community College

The rules for quoting drama and/or poetry in Modern Language Association (MLA) Style differ from those for quoting the genre of prose. This article discusses rules for using MLA style to format quotes from drama and poetry. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more.

Quoting Poetry

The MLA Handbook offers specific guidelines for quoting poetry.

In addition to the amount quoted and line breaks, other factors that matter include stanza breaks, and unusual layouts.

Special Issues: Stanza Breaks, Unusual Layouts

Stanza Breaks: Mark stanza breaks that occur in a quotation with two forward slashes, with a space before and after them ( / / ) (78).

William Carlos Williams depicts a vivid image in “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends / / upon / / a red wheel / / barrow / / glazed with rain / / water / / beside the white / / chickens” (“Williams”).

Unusual Layouts: If the layout of the lines in the original text is unusual, reproduce it as accurately as you can (79).

The English metaphysical John Donne uses indentation in some of his poems to create unusual layouts, as the first stanza of including “A Valediction: of Weeping” demonstrates:

Let me pour forth My tears before they face, whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth, For thus they be Pregnant of thee; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more, When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore, So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore. (lines 1-9)

Quoting Plays

When you must quote dialogue from a play, adhere to these rules:

• Set the quotation off from your text.
• Indent each name half an inch from the left margin and write it in all capital letters.
• Follow the name with a period and then start the quotation.
• Indent all other lines in the character’s speech an additional amount.
• When the dialogue shifts to another character, start a new line indented half an inch.
• Maintain this pattern throughout the quotation (80).

Example: One of the flashbacks in Margaret Edson’s Wit suggests Vivian Bearing’s illness causes her to question some of her previous interactions with students:

STUDENT 1. Professor Bearing? Can I talk to you for a minute?

VIVIAN: You may.

STUDENT 1: I need to ask for an extension on my paper. I’m really sorry, and I know your policy, but see—

VIVIAN: Don’t tell me. Your grandmother died.

STUDENT 1: You knew.

VIVIAN: It was a guess.

STUDENT 1: I have to go home.

VIVIAN: Do what you will, but the paper is due when it is due. (63)

Special Issues

Omissions: Follow the rules for omissions in quotations of prose (83).

Although some of the rules for quoting plays and poetry in MLA differ than those for quoting prose, understanding the guidelines will help you apply them in any scenario.

Donne, John. “The Bait.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 43-4.

—. “The Break of Day.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 45-6. Edson, Margaret. Wit. Faber and Faber, 1993.

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 39. The Pelican Shakespeare: The Sonnets . Penguin Books, 1970, p. 59.

Williams, William Carlos: “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/45502 .

Yeats, William. “A Prayer for My Daughter.” The Collected Poems . Ed. Richard Finneran. Scribner, 1983, pp. 188-190.

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Quoting and Citing a Poem in MLA: Tips, Steps, and Insights

You are in the right place if you have been struggling online trying to discover how to quote and cite a poem in an MLA essay. You might have heard your professor say that quoting a poem in MLA means introducing the quote and using quotation marks, as you would for any other source. But how do you do that correctly when the quote includes line breaks? Let us look at this comprehensive guide to citing a poem in an MLA paper.

 In this post, you will discover all the information you need to know to quote and cite poems correctly as per the MLA stylebook.

When to Quote a Poem

Before you learn how to quote and cite a poem, it is vital to learn when it is necessary to do so. You should only quote a poem in your essay:

1. When Absolutely Necessary

You should only quote a poem in your essay when it is necessary. Quoting lines upon lines of a poem in your essay to boost the word count will not do you much good.

Most professors will be annoyed when they notice you have done this in your essay. And this usually leads only to an average or lower grade. Therefore, quote a poem only when absolutely necessary.

You will know it is necessary to quote a poem when quoting a poem adds value to your paper. If you genuinely believe quoting a poem enhances your paper in one way or another, you should do it.

2. When You Want To Support Your Arguments

It would help if you quoted a poem to support your arguments. There are situations where you cannot write your essay correctly without quoting a poem.

For example, when you analyze a poem in your essay, you must quote it several times. This will help show the reader what you are talking about. In other words, it will help you to support your arguments.

Related Reading:

• How to use block quotes in MLA.
• How to title a movie in an essay.
• Indenting paragraphs in an academic essay.

Now that you know when to quote a poem in an essay, it is time to discover how exactly to do so. The information we share below will show you how to quote a poem in MLA.

Essential Tips to Quote a Poem in MLA

There are different rules for quoting just a single line of poetry, two or three lines, and for quoting four or more lines.

1. How to Quote a Single Line of Poetry in Your MLA Essay

Quoting a single line of poetry in an MLA essay is easy. You need to put it in double quotes. This is how you would quote a single line of anything else in your MLA essay. So nothing is challenging about it.

Putting a single line of poetry in your MLA essay without enclosing it with double quotation marks will make it difficult for your professor to know you are quoting something.

And do not for a moment think that italicizing a line of poetry can work in lieu of the double quotation marks. It cannot work since it is not how the MLA stylebook requires you to quote a single line of poetry.

Examples of how to quote a single line of poetry:

• "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping" – Edgar Allan Poe
• "The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed" – Percy Shelley
• "Life is but an empty dream!" – Henry Longfellow

2. How to Quote Two or Three Lines of Poetry

Quoting two or three lines of poetry is a bit more complex than quoting just one. This is because two or three lines of poetry will need something to tell the reader they are moving to the next line.

So how do you do it? Write two or three lines of poetry and enclose them with double quotation marks. Then use the forward slash symbol "/" to show the transition from one line to the next. The symbol should be preceded and followed by space.

If the lines you are quoting are from two different stanzas, use the double forward slash symbol "//" to show the transition from one stanza to the next.

One important thing to remember when quoting a chunk of poetry in your essay is that you should always retain the same styling, capitalization, and punctuation as in the original poem. Do not adjust or rewrite anything to make it sound better or more correct.

Examples of how to quote two to three lines of poetry:

• "Life is real! Life is earnest! / And the grave is not its goal;" – Henry Longfellow
• "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" – Percy Shelley
• "Does it dry up / Like a raising in the sun?" – Langston Hughes

3. How to Quote Four or More Lines of Poetry

How you quote four or more lines of poetry differs from how you quote three or fewer lines of poetry. It is different because when you quote four or more lines of poetry, you must quote them as a block.

Here is how exactly to quote four or more lines of poetry. First, introduce the quote or provide the reader with some context on the quote you will unleash to them. Second, put a colon at the end of the sentence to show a quote is coming.

Third, create a line break (a new line) and press the "Tab" this will indent your quote (0.5-inch from the left margin) and distinguish it from the rest of your writing. Lastly, quote the poem you wanted to quote without adding any quotation marks.

Example 1 of how to quote four or more lines of poetry:

Langston Hughes' poem opens with a couple of rhetorical questions:

            What happens to a dream deferred?

            Does it dry up

            Like a raisin in the sun?

            Or fester like a sore-

            And then run?

Example 2 of how to quote four or more lines of poetry

Maya Angelou's inspiring poem offers words of encouragement to the downtrodden:

            You may shoot me with your words,

            You may cut me with your eyes,

            You may kill me with your hatefulness,

            But still, like air, I'll rise.

Example 3 of how to quote four or more lines of poetry

The poet John Donne, in his thought-inspiring poem, reveals the deep connection we have to humanity:

            Any man's death diminishes me,

            Because I am involved in mankind,

            And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

            It tolls for thee.

You now know how exactly to quote a poem in an MLA essay. It is now to discover how to cite a poem in MLA. Citing is not the same thing as quoting. It is more complex. Check the section below to understand.

How to cite a poem in an MLA Paper or Essay

When you name, discuss, mention, or refer to a poem, it is best to cite it so that your reader can read more about it if they want to. Failure to properly cite a poem or any other work you use or discuss in your essay is wrong and is considered academic dishonesty. It will make your essay look like it is missing something and reduce your chances of getting an excellent grade (professors do not like poorly cited essays).

When citing a poem in your essay, you must cite it in-text and on the reference page.

Citing a poem in-text has a few rules that you need to follow. The most important rule is clearly stating the author's last name. The purpose of doing this is to enable the reader to quickly locate the author of the work and the associated source on your references page.

Follow the rules below to cite any poem in-text in your MLA essay properly.

A. How to cite a poem with no line numbers or page numbers

You can find a poem on a website or a published text without any lines or page numbers. The correct way to cite it is only by the author's last name. Do not count the lines or the pages manually for your in-text citation.

Example of how to cite a poem with no line numbers or page numbers

"Every man is a piece of the continent, / A part of the main." (Donne)

B. How to cite a poem with line numbers

Sometimes poems are published with line numbers on the side. This is often true in official poem collections. When you quote or talk about a poem with line numbers in your essay, your in-text citation must show the exact lines you have quoted or are talking about.

Your citation should begin with the author's last name followed by a comma and the exact lines you have quoted or are discussing. Once you cite a poem with line numbers in this manner, put line numbers only in parentheses in subsequent references to the same poem.

Example of how to cite a poem with line numbers

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could travel both" (Frost, lines 1-2).

C. How to cite a poem with page numbers

A poem can be published over several pages. If a poem is published over several pages but without line numbers, you should provide an in-text citation referencing the exact page number you have quoted or are talking about.

Your citation should begin with the author's last name and the page number. Unlike in the case of line numbers, you are not supposed to put a comma between the poet's last name and the page number.

Example of how to cite a poem with page numbers

"For they sweet love remembered such wealth brings, / That, then I scorn to change my state with kings." (Shakespeare 38).

D. How to cite a poem multiple times

When you cite a poem severally in the same paragraph, you don't need to repeat the entire in-text citation over and over again. You need to put only the line number or page number you are referring to in parentheses.

Example of how to cite a poem consecutively in the same paragraph

"And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could"

Citing a poem on the reference page MLA

Every poem you cite in-text should have the full citation on your references page. How you reference a poem on the references page depends on the source.

Poems can be found in many places (e.g., online, in a book, or in an anthology). The way you cite a poem you've found online is not the same you cite a poem you've found in a book.

A. How to cite a poem found online

When you find a poem online or on a website, there is a way you need to cite it. You must begin with the author's last name and then their first name. You need to follow the poet's name with the poem's name in parentheses. Check out the format below.

Online citation format:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title." Year of publication. Title of the website, Website Publisher, Link. Accessed day month year.

Online citation example:

Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 29." 1609. Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45090/sonnet-29-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-mens-eyes. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.

B. How to cite a poem from a book

When you find a poem in a book, there are rules you need to follow in citing it. The first two elements of the citation (the name and the title of the poem, will be formatted the same way as when citing a poem from an online source. The other elements are different, so the formatting is a bit different. Check out the format below.

Book citation format

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title." Book Title, Publisher. Year of publication, Page number/range.

Book citation example

Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 29." William Shakespeare Poem Collection, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 32.

C. How to cite a poem from an anthology

An anthology is a collection of poems from different authors. How you cite a poem from an anthology is not the same way you cite a poem from a book with poems from solely one author. Use the format below to cite a poem from an anthology.

Anthology citation format

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Work."  Anthology Collection,  edited by (first name and last name), edition (if applicable), volume (if applicable), Publisher, year of anthology publication, page number or page range.

Anthology citation example:

Hughes, William. "Dark Oceans."  Collection of Modern South African Poems , edited by John Moore, Cape Town University Press, 2009, p. 77.

As we wind up this Super Guide…

If you made it this far, you are now conversant with how to quote poems in an MLA paper. You can now comfortably cite poems from different sources. We hope that the information we have shared with you should make it easy for you to quote and cite poems easily in your MLA essays.

• How to write a poem analysis essay.
• How to write an expository essay.
• How to write a rhetorical analysis essay.

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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 65,199 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.

• 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."

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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.

• 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,

• 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

• 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").

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

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• ↑ 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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• Citing a Poem

Like other sources, poem citations begin with the poet's last name. However, there are some different MLA rules when it comes to citing lines of poetry.

• Works Cited
• In-Text Citation Rules
• In-text, Quoting 1 Line
• In-text, Quoting 2-3 Lines
• In-text, Quoting 4+ Lines

Citing a Poem: Works Cited

Poem in a book.

Format:  Author(s). "Title of Part."  Title of Book in Italics , edited by Editor, edition, vol. #, Publisher, Year,  page number(s).  Database Name  in Italics  (if electronic),  URL.

Example:  Lazarus, Emma. "The New Colossus."  The Norton Introduction to Literature,  edited by Kelly J. Mays, shorter 14th ed., W.W. Norton, 2022, p. 752. 

Poem from a Website

Format:  Author(s). “Poem Title.” Original publication year.  Title of Website in Italics , Website Publisher (if different than title), Date of publication, URL. Access Date.

Example:  Angelou, Maya. "Still I Rise." 1978.  Poetry Foundation , www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise. Accessed 21 Sep. 2022.

• Use "line" or "lines" in your in-text if the source lists line numbers rather than page numbers.
• For the first citation include the word  "line" or "lines" before the numbers
• After the first in-text citation establishing that you will be using lines for that partacular source, you no longer need to use the word line or lines.
• (Frost, lines 145-48)
• (Frost 145-48).
• Note: If you are citing only one source for your entire paper/project, then you do not need to repeat the author's last name/title in the in-text citations as long as it's clear that you're referencing the outside source. This means your first in-text citation could look like (Frost, lines 145-48), but later in that paragraph if your next citation could just be the line number, like this (152). 

Quoting a single line of poetry

In-Text Format:  (Poet Last Name, line number)

Example:  "So better by far for me if you were stone" (Duffy, line 17).

Note:  Only include the line numbers if they are already included in the poem you are citing. You do not need to count line numbers if they are not already included. If you find the poem in a book, you can use the page number(s) for the poem. If you found the poem online and there are no page numbers or line numbers, you only need to include the poet's last name.

Quoting 2-3 lines of poetry

When quoting 2-3 lines of poetry, use a forward slash ( / ) to mark the line breaks. If there is a stanza break between the lines you are quoting, use a double slash ( // ). Be sure to put a space before and after the slash. 

Use the exact punctuation, capitalization, and styling as used in the original text.

Format:  (Poet Last Name, line number(s))

Example:  "Wasn't I beautiful? / Wasn't I fragrant and young? // Look at me now" (Duffy, lines 40-42).

Quoting 4+ lines of poetry

When quoting 4 or more lines of poetry, use a block quote. Be sure to keep the spacing, punctuation, and capitalization the same as it is in the poem.

Example:  In the poem "Medusa," Medusa discusses why she wants to turn the man she loves into stone: Be terrified. It's you I love, perfect man, Greek God, my own; but I know you'll go, betray me, stray from home. So better by far for me if you were stone. (Duffy, lines 12-17)

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MLA Style Guide, 8th & 9th Editions: Citing Poetry

• Works Cited entries: What to Include
• Title of source
• Title of container
• Contributors
• Publication date
• Supplemental Elements
• Book with Personal Author(s)
• Book with Organization as Author
• Book with Editor(s)
• Parts of Books
• Government Publication
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• Multivolume Works
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• Other Formats
• Websites, Social Media, and Email
• About In-text Citations
• In-text Examples
• How to Paraphrase and Quote
• Citing Poetry
• Formatting Your MLA Paper
• Formatting Your Works Cited List
• MLA Annotated Bibliography
• MLA 9th Edition Quick Guide
• Submit Your Paper for MLA Style Review

MLA Poetry Citations

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How to Cite a Poem: MLA and APA Formatting Quotations

Writing, and all of its connected skills, are essential to succeed in studying — especially humanities. One such skill is the proper use of quotations. To make a quotation means to place the exact words of another author in your essay — these words could be lines from a poem as well.

When to Use Poem Quotes

When is it appropriate to cite a poem? Most often, quotes from poems are used by liberal art students, literature students, and language students. It is hard to imagine writing an essay about a poet without including some pieces of his works, or describing some poetry trend without providing examples. Also, you may find poem lines used in descriptive, reflective, argumentative, and compare and contrast essays.

Nevertheless, even if you are not a humanities student, you are not limited to use poem citations in your works if the meaning of the line(s) you have chosen is relevant. While there are no rules on where you may cite a poem, there are a lot on how you should do it in different formatting styles. Continue reading to find out more about how to cite a poem correctly or simply use professional help. Need help? You can buy custom essay at EssayPro.

To get help from essay writer online , just let us know your requirements and we will create an original paper with proper formatting.

Citing Poem Quotes in MLA Style

The most popular formatting style is MLA (Modern Language Association). Despite it possibly being the easiest style to use, you will need some time to learn all of the rules, and time to train to apply them.

You might also be interested in how to style an essay using MLA FORMAT

The rules of citing a poem in MLA style depend on the citation’s length. Quotes up to three lines are considered to be short, and quotes longer than three lines – long.

 Having Troubles with Citing a Poem?

Allow our writers to demonstrate how it’s done! 

Citing a Short and a Long Quote

Short Quote Example:

In “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman wrote, “I exist as I am, that is enough, / If no other in the world be aware I sit content, / And if each and all be aware I sit content.”

Long Quote Example:

‍ Emily Dickinson wrote: Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.

Citing the Title of the Poem

Regardless of the length of a quote, you should clearly indicate the poet’s last name. You should also include the title of the poem if you cite more than one poem by the same author in your work. You may do it in two ways: mention it before the quotation in the main text, or include it in a parenthetical citation at the end of the lines. If you mentioned the name and the title before the quote, but you’re not sure if it will be obvious for the reader, you may repeat it in a parenthetical citation — it won’t be considered as a mistake.

Besides the poet’s last name and the title of the poem, a parenthetical citation should include a line or page number. Here are some brief rules for parenthetical citations:

• If a poem was published with line numbers in the margin, put the line number. Use the word “line”, or “lines”, in the first quotation of your work. Only use numbers in all of the following quotations from the same sources you’ve already quoted.

Example: “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)

• If there are no line numbers in the margin, put the page number in parenthetical citation after the poet’s last name instead. Do not use a comma between the poet’s name and page number.

Example: “Your head so much concerned with outer, / Mine with inner, weather.” (Frost 126)

• If you found the poem from a website, or the page numbers are not available for other reasons, don’t put any numbers at all. Leave only the poet’s last name and poem’s title (if required as mentioned above).

Example: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” (Mary Oliver)

• If you mentioned the poet’s last name and poem’s title before the citation (if required as mentioned above), and you have no lines or page number, don’t make an in-text citation after the quote at all.

Example: Here is what Pablo Neruda wrote about this feeling, “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”

• If you would like to cite the title of the poem not in a parenthetical citation, but inside your text, there are two ways to do it, and it depends on the title’s length. Short poem titles should be cited in quotation marks.

Examples: “A Book”, “Fire and Ice”, or “Nothing Gold can’t Stay”

• Long poem titles should be cited in italics.

Example: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Because I could not Stop for Death.

• Don't forget to write a full reference for each source you use in your Works Cited page at the end of your essay. If the poem citation was taken from a book, it should be made in the following format: Poet’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’s Name (often shortened), Year of Publication, pp. xx-xx.

Examples: Dickinson, Emily. “A Book.” Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems , edited by Anthony Eyre, Mount Orleans Press, 2019, pp. 55-56.

• If the poem citation was taken from a website, it should be made in the following format: Poet’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Poem.” Title of Book: Subtitle (if any) , Edition (if given and is not first), Publisher Name (often shortened), Year of Publication, Website Name, URL. Accessed Access Date.

Example: Frost, Robert. “Fire and Ice”. Poetry Foundation , https://poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice. Accessed 28 Nov. 2019.

You may also be interested in how to write a conclusion for a research paper . This information will be useful for all kinds of student papers, whether you need just to cite a poem or write a political science essay .

How to Cite a Poem in APA Style?

APA is the abbreviation for American Psychological Association, and is the second most popular formatting style — used mainly in social studies. Here are some APA rules for poem citations that you need to know from our service:

• For poem quotes up to 40 words (short quotes), using quotation marks is obligatory.
• You don’t have to start a short quote from a new line.
• Line breaks in short quotes should be marked by a slash.
• Block citations should be used for quotes longer than 40 words (long quotes).
• You have to start a block citation from a new line.
• Do not use quotation marks for block citations
• Block quotations should be indented 1.3 cm from the left margin, and in double-space formatting.

If your quote is taken from a book, a full reference to the source in the Works Cited page (in APA style) should be made according to the following template: Poet’s Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Poem title. In Editor Initial. Last Name (Ed.), Book title (pp. xx-xx). Location: Publisher.

Example: Dickinson, E. (2019). A book. A. Eyre (Ed.), Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems (pp.55-56). Cricklade, U.K.: Mount Orleans Press.

If a quotation was taken from a website, the following template should be used: Poet’s Last Name, First Initial. (Year, Month Day). Poem title. Retrieved from http://WebAddress.

Example: Dickinson, E. (2019, November 28). I'm Nobody! Who are you? Retrieved from https://poets.org/poem/im-nobody-who-are-you-260.

How to Cite a Poem in Harvard Style? 

In Harvard style, citing a poem follows a similar format to citing other sources. Here's how you can cite a poem using Harvard style:

In-text citation:

For in-text citations, include the poet's last name, the year of publication (if available), and the page number if you are quoting directly. If the poem is online, you can include the title, stanza, or line number instead of the page number.

According to Frost (1916), "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by" (p. 1).

As Frost (1916) famously wrote, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by" (p. 1).

If the poem has no page numbers, you can use line numbers instead:

(Brathwaite, 2007, lines 5-8)

If you're paraphrasing or referring to the poem generally, you can just mention the poet's name and the year:

According to Dickinson (1896), life is often portrayed as a journey.

Dickinson's (1896) poetry often explores themes of mortality and nature.

Reference list entry:

In the reference list, include the full bibliographic details of the poem, including the poet's name, the title of the poem (in italics), the publication year, the title of the book or anthology (if applicable), the editor's name (if applicable), the publisher, and the page numbers (if applicable).

Frost, R. (1916). The Road Not Taken. In Mountain Interval. Henry Holt and Company.

Brathwaite, E. K. (2007). Barabajan Poems 1492-1992. Wesleyan University Press.

Make sure to italicize the poem's title and the book or anthology title. If you're citing a poem from an online source, include the URL and the access date. Always check your institution's guidelines for citation formatting, as variations in citation style requirements may exist.

Tips and Tricks on How to Cite a Poem

Here are a few recommendations on how to format poem quotations properly. They will be useful whether or not you are a beginner or advanced user of poem citations, regardless of what formatting style you are using.

• Read the whole poem to be sure you understand the meaning of the citation and author’s message correctly. Then, decide which lines can be used as a quote for your work.
• Write a few words about: why you chose the lines from your poem, their message, and what their connection is with your essay topic.
• Do not overuse quotations in your work. You may also paraphrase, instead of quoting, in order to share other’s views. Moreover, it is your own work and you shouldn’t rely on others’ words the whole time.
• There is no need to cite the entire poem if you need a few lines in the beginning and a few in the end. Omit middle lines that you don’t need (use ellipses to point out that you will skip words), or create two quotations that connect with your text between them.
• Use embedded quotes. These are quotes that are implemented as a part of your sentence. You may put it at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of your sentence. The idea is to make it an organic part of your text. Example: As well as Robert Frost, at first “I hold with those who favor fire”.
• When citing a specific source (periodicals or a website perhaps), check the specifics on how to cite it in MLA or another format — as there are some particularities we didn’t have time to cover.
• Together with the final review of your essay, proofread your cited quotes for both: appropriate usage, and correct formatting.

For now, before you hone your professional skills, we are here to help you! Do not hesitate to contact our service, no matter what kind of help you need, whether it's a poem citations or physics help .

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Frequently asked questions

How do i format a poetry quotation in mla.

To quote poetry in MLA style , introduce the quote and use quotation marks as you would for any other source quotation .

If the quote includes line breaks, mark these using a forward slash with a space on either side. Use two slashes to indicate a stanza break.

If the quote is longer than three lines, set them off from the main text as an MLA block quote . Reproduce the line breaks, punctuation, and formatting of the original.

Frequently asked questions: MLA Style

In MLA style , footnotes or endnotes can be used to provide additional information that would interrupt the flow of your text.

This can be further examples or developments of ideas you only briefly discuss in the text. You can also use notes to provide additional sources or explain your citation practice.

You don’t have to use any notes at all; only use them to provide relevant information that complements your arguments or helps the reader to understand them.

No, you should use parenthetical MLA in-text citations to cite sources. Footnotes or endnotes can be used to add extra information that doesn’t fit into your main text, but they’re not needed for citations.

If you need to cite a lot of sources at the same point in the text, though, placing these citations in a note can be a good way to avoid cluttering your text.

According to MLA format guidelines, the Works Cited page(s) should look like this:

• Running head containing your surname and the page number.
• The title, Works Cited, centered and in plain text.
• List of sources alphabetized by the author’s surname.
• Left-aligned.
• Double-spaced.
• 1-inch margins.
• Hanging indent applied to all entries.

The MLA Works Cited lists every source that you cited in your paper. Each entry contains the author , title , and publication details of the source.

No, in an MLA annotated bibliography , you can write short phrases instead of full sentences to keep your annotations concise. You can still choose to use full sentences instead, though.

Use full sentences in your annotations if your instructor requires you to, and always use full sentences in the main text of your paper .

If you’re working on a group project and therefore need to list multiple authors for your paper , MLA recommends against including a normal header . Instead, create a separate title page .

On the title page, list each author on a separate line, followed by the other usual information from the header: Instructor, course name and number, and submission date. Then write the title halfway down the page, centered, and start the text of the paper itself on the next page.

Usually, no title page is needed in an MLA paper . A header is generally included at the top of the first page instead. The exceptions are when:

• Your instructor requires one, or
• Your paper is a group project

In those cases, you should use a title page instead of a header, listing the same information but on a separate page.

When an online source (e.g. web page , blog post) doesn’t list a publication date , you should instead list an access date .

Unlike a publication date, this appears at the end of your MLA Works Cited entry, after the URL, e.g. “A Complete Guide to MLA Style.” Scribbr , www.scribbr.com/category/mla/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021 .

For offline sources with no publication date shown, don’t use an access date—just leave out the date.

The level of detail you provide in a publication date in your Works Cited list depends on the type of source and the information available. Generally, follow the lead of the source—if it gives the full date, give the full date; if it gives just the year, so should you.

Books usually list the year, whereas web pages tend to give a full date. For journal articles , give the year, month and year, or season and year, depending on what information is available. Check our citation examples if you’re unsure about a particular source type.

In an MLA Works Cited list , the names of months with five or more letters are abbreviated to the first three letters, followed by a period. For example, abbreviate Feb., Mar., Apr., but not June, July.

In the main text, month names should never be abbreviated.

In your MLA Works Cited list , dates are always written in day-month-year order, with the month abbreviated if it’s five or more letters long, e.g. 5 Mar. 2018.

In the main text, you’re free to use either day-month-year or month-day-year order, as long as you use one or the other consistently. Don’t abbreviate months in the main text, and use numerals for dates, e.g. 5 March 2018 or March 5, 2018.

In most standard dictionaries , no author is given for either the overall dictionary or the individual entries, so no author should be listed in your MLA citations.

Instead, start your Works Cited entry and your MLA in-text citation with the title of the entry you’re citing (i.e. the word that’s being defined), in quotation marks.

If you cite a specialist dictionary that does list an author and/or overall editor, these should be listed in the same way as they would for other citations of books or book chapters .

Some source types, such as books and journal articles , may contain footnotes (or endnotes) with additional information. The following rules apply when citing information from a note in an MLA in-text citation :

• To cite information from a single numbered note, write “n” after the page number, and then write the note number, e.g. (Smith 105n2)
• To cite information from multiple numbered notes, write “nn” and include a range, e.g. (Smith 77nn1–2)
• To cite information from an unnumbered note, write “un” after the page number, with a space in between, e.g. (Jones 250 un)

If you cite multiple Shakespeare plays throughout your paper, the MLA in-text citation begins with an abbreviated version of the title (as shown here ), e.g. ( Oth. 1.2.4). Each play should have its own  Works Cited entry (even if they all come from the same collection).

If you cite only one Shakespeare play in your paper, you should include a Works Cited entry for that play, and your in-text citations should start with the author’s name , e.g. (Shakespeare 1.1.4).

No, do not use page numbers in your MLA in-text citations of Shakespeare plays . Instead, specify the act, scene, and line numbers of the quoted material, separated by periods, e.g. (Shakespeare 3.2.20–25).

This makes it easier for the reader to find the relevant passage in any edition of the text.

When an article (e.g. in a newspaper ) appears on non-consecutive pages (e.g. starting on page 1 and continuing on page 6), you should use “pp.” in your Works Cited entry, since it’s on multiple pages, but MLA recommends just listing the first page followed by a plus sign, e.g. pp. 1+.

In an MLA style Works Cited entry for a newspaper , you can cite a local newspaper in the same way as you would a national one, except that you may have to add the name of the city in square brackets to clarify what newspaper you mean, e.g. The Gazette [Montreal].

Do not add the city name in brackets if it’s already part of the newspaper’s name, e.g. Dallas Observer .

MLA doesn’t require you to list an author for a TV show . If your citation doesn’t focus on a particular contributor, just start your Works Cited entry with the title of the episode or series, and use this (shortened if necessary) in your MLA in-text citation .

If you focus on a particular contributor (e.g. the writer or director, a particular actor), you can list them in the author position , along with a label identifying their role.

It’s standard to list the podcast’s host in the author position , accompanied by the label “host,” in an MLA Works Cited entry. It’s sometimes more appropriate to use the label “narrator,” when the podcast just tells a story without any guests.

If your citation of the podcast focuses more on the contribution of someone else (e.g. a guest, the producer), they can be listed in the author position instead, with an appropriate label.

MLA recommends citing the original source wherever possible, rather than the source in which it is quoted or reproduced.

If this isn’t possible, cite the secondary source and use “qtd. in” (quoted in) in your MLA in-text citation . For example: (qtd. in Smith 233)

If a source is reproduced in full within another source (e.g. an image within a PowerPoint  or a poem in an article ), give details of the original source first, then include details of the secondary source as a container. For example:

When you want to cite a PowerPoint or lecture notes from a lecture you viewed in person in MLA , check whether they can also be accessed online ; if so, this is the best version to cite, as it allows the reader to access the source.

If the material is not available online, use the details of where and when the presentation took place.

In an MLA song citation , you need to give some sort of container to indicate how you accessed the song. If this is a physical or downloaded album, the Works Cited entry should list the album name, distributor, year, and format.

However, if you listened to the song on a streaming service, you can just list the site as a container, including a URL. In this case, including the album details is optional; you may add this information if it is relevant to your discussion or if it will help the reader access the song.

When citing a song in MLA style , the author is usually the main artist or group that released the song.

However, if your discussion focuses on the contributions of a specific performer, e.g. a guitarist or singer, you may list them as author, even if they are not the main artist. If you’re discussing the lyrics or composition, you may cite the songwriter or composer rather than a performer.

When a source has no title , this part of your MLA reference is replaced with a description of the source, in plain text (no italics or quotation marks, sentence-case capitalization).

Whenever you refer to an image created by someone else in your text, you should include a citation leading the reader to the image you’re discussing.

If you include the image directly in your text as a figure , the details of the source appear in the figure’s caption. If you don’t, just include an MLA in-text citation wherever you mention the image, and an entry in the Works Cited list giving full details.

In MLA Style , you should cite a specific chapter or work within a book in two situations:

• When each of the book’s chapters is written by a different author.
• When the book is a collection of self-contained works (such as poems , plays , or short stories ), even if they are all written by the same author.

If you cite multiple chapters or works from the same book, include a separate Works Cited entry for each chapter.

If a source has no author, start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title . Use a shortened version of the title in your MLA in-text citation .

If a source has no page numbers, you can use an alternative locator (e.g. a chapter number, or a timestamp for a video or audio source) to identify the relevant passage in your in-text citation. If the source has no numbered divisions, cite only the author’s name (or the title).

If you already named the author or title in your sentence, and there is no locator available, you don’t need a parenthetical citation:

• Rajaram  argues that representations of migration are shaped by “cultural, political, and ideological interests.”
• The homepage of The Correspondent describes it as “a movement for radically different news.”

If a source has two authors, name both authors in your MLA in-text citation and Works Cited entry. If there are three or more authors, name only the first author, followed by et al.

You must include an MLA in-text citation every time you quote or paraphrase from a source (e.g. a book , movie , website , or article ).

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

If information about your source is not available, you can either leave it out of the MLA citation or replace it with something else, depending on the type of information.

• No author : Start with the source title.
• No title : Provide a description of the source.
• No date : Provide an access date for online sources; omit for other sources.

A standard MLA Works Cited entry  is structured as follows:

Only include information that is available for and relevant to your source.

Yes. MLA style uses title case, which means that all principal words (nouns, pronouns , verbs, adjectives , adverbs , and some conjunctions ) are capitalized.

This applies to titles of sources as well as the title of, and subheadings in, your paper. Use MLA capitalization style even when the original source title uses different capitalization .

The title of an article is not italicized in MLA style , but placed in quotation marks. This applies to articles from journals , newspapers , websites , or any other publication. Use italics for the title of the source where the article was published. For example:

Use the same formatting in the Works Cited entry and when referring to the article in the text itself.

In MLA style , book titles appear in italics, with all major words capitalized. If there is a subtitle, separate it from the main title with a colon and a space (even if no colon appears in the source). For example:

The format is the same in the Works Cited list and in the text itself. However, when you mention the book title in the text, you don’t have to include the subtitle.

The title of a part of a book—such as a chapter, or a short story or poem in a collection—is not italicized, but instead placed in quotation marks.

In MLA style citations , format a DOI as a link, including “https://doi.org/” at the start and then the unique numerical code of the article.

DOIs are used mainly when citing journal articles in MLA .

The MLA Handbook is currently in its 9th edition , published in 2021.

This quick guide to MLA style  explains the latest guidelines for citing sources and formatting papers according to MLA.

The fastest and most accurate way to create MLA citations is by using Scribbr’s MLA Citation Generator .

Search by book title, page URL, or journal DOI to automatically generate flawless citations, or cite manually using the simple citation forms.

MLA recommends using 12-point Times New Roman , since it’s easy to read and installed on every computer. Other standard fonts such as Arial or Georgia are also acceptable. If in doubt, check with your supervisor which font you should be using.

To create a correctly formatted block quote in Microsoft Word, follow these steps:

• Hit Enter at the beginning and end of the quote.
• Highlight the quote and select the Layout menu.
• On the Indent tab, change the left indent to 0.5″.

Do not put quotation marks around the quote, and make sure to include an MLA in-text citation after the period at the end.

To format a block quote in MLA:

• Introduce the quote with a colon and set it on a new line.
• Indent the whole quote 0.5 inches from the left margin.
• Place the MLA in-text citation after the period at the end of the block quote.

Then continue your text on a new line (not indented).

In MLA style , if you quote more than four lines from a source, use MLA block quote formatting .

If you are quoting poetry , use block quote formatting for any quote longer than three lines.

An MLA in-text citation should always include the author’s last name, either in the introductory text or in parentheses after a quote .

If line numbers or page numbers are included in the original source, add these to the citation.

If you are discussing multiple poems by the same author, make sure to also mention the title of the poem (shortened if necessary). The title goes in quotation marks .

In the list of Works Cited , start with the poet’s name and the poem’s title in quotation marks. The rest of the citation depends on where the poem was published.

If you read the poem in a book or anthology, follow the format of an MLA book chapter citation . If you accessed the poem online, follow the format of an MLA website citation .

Only use line numbers in an MLA in-text citation if the lines are numbered in the original source. If so, write “lines” in the first citation of the poem , and only the numbers in subsequent citations.

If there are no line numbers in the source, you can use page numbers instead. If the poem appears on only one page of a book (or on a website ), don’t include a number in the citation.

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How to Cite a Poem Using APA Style

Last Updated: December 18, 2023 Fact Checked

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. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 163,762 times.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style guide is very popular, especially in the social sciences. If you need to write a paper in APA style, there are a lot of different formatting rules to consider. Citing sources, such as poems, can be one of the most confusing things, but if you follow a few simple rules, you'll have perfectly formatted citations.

Quoting a Poem in Your Essay

• For example, introduce a short quote like this. Frost writes, "Some say the world will end in fire."

• For example, cite two line of a poem like this: "Some say the world will end end fire, / Some say in ice."

• You should not use quotation marks with block quotes. It is not necessary because the indentation signifies that it is a quote.
• Be sure to maintain the same double spacing that you have in the rest of your paper.

Using Proper In-Text Citations

• If you mention the author's name in the sentence that introduces the quote, include the year in parentheses after the author's name, and the page number in parentheses after the end of quote. For example: In his poem "Fire and Ice," Robert Frost (1923) says, "Some say the world will end in fire." (p. 1)
• If you don't include the author's name in the sentence that introduces the quote, provide all three pieces of information, separated by commas, in parentheses after the end of the quote. For example: "Some say the world will end in fire." (Frost, 1923, p. 1)
• Parenthetical citations should always come after the punctuation of the preceding sentence.

• If you are not referring to one specific page of the poem, you may omit the page number from your parenthetical citation, although you are encouraged to provide a page number whenever possible.

• Capitalize all major words in the title of any work.
• Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works (such as most poems).
• Italicize or underline the title of longer works (such as anthologies).

Citing a Poem in Your Works Cited

• Author's last name, Author's first name (Year of publication). Title of work: Subtitle. Location: Publisher.

• Author's last name, Author's first name (Year of publication). Title of poem. In Editor's first and last name (Eds.), Title of book (pp. page #). Location: Publisher.

• In general, if your source does not provide a specific piece of information, it is okay to omit it from the citation.
• Note that when citing multiple pages you should notate it with "pp." instead of "p."

• For a website, include the words "Retrieved from" followed by the full web address at the end of your citation.
• For an e-book, include the e-book format in square brackets directly after the title of the book (for example, [Kindle DX version]). Then include the words "Available from" followed by the website from which you retrieved the e-book at the end of your citation.

• Capitalize only the first word of the title of a book, not every word.
• Do not surround the title of a poem with quotation marks.
• Use the title References at the top of your page.
• Alphabetize your entries by the author's last name. If you have more than one source by the same author, use the date of publication to list them chronologically.
• The first line of each citation should not be indented, but all additional lines should be indented 1 ⁄ 2 inch (1.3 cm) (two spaces) from the left margin.
• Maintain the same double spacing you have throughout the rest of your paper.
• If you are providing annotations (descriptions of your sources), provide them directly beneath your citation, indented two spaces further than the second line of your citation.

Community Q&A

• If you plan on writing a lot of papers using APA format, it's a good idea to buy a print copy of the manual or pay for online access. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• APA is not the only style guide out there, so double check that your teacher wants you to use APA. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Be sure to cite all of the sources that you quote, paraphrase, or even refer to when writing a paper so that you avoid all appearances of plagiarism. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Don’t forget that you will also have to compose your entire essay or paper according to the APA style. This includes using the APA rules regarding line and paragraph spacing, typeface, margins, etc. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://libguides.swansea.ac.uk/APA7Referencing/Poetry
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/quotation_marks/quotation_marks_with_fiction.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_author_authors.html
• ↑ https://penandthepad.com/cite-poem-apa-format-5072453.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html

About This Article

If you want to cite a poem using the APA style, include your quote from a poem in quotation marks if it's less than 40 words, and use forward slashes to indicate line breaks. To cite a longer passage, begin the quote on a new line and indent it to create a block quotation. For your in-text citation, include the author's name, year of publication, and page number, preceded by the letter "p." When it comes to the title, capitalize all major words, place short titles in quotes, and italicize longer titles. To learn how to include your citation in the works cited section of your essay, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How do I cite nonconsecutive lines from a poem like Homer’s The Odyssey ?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook . For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook .

The order of information in your citations should always match the order in which you present information in your text. Thus, when you cite nonconsecutive lines of poetry, make sure that the order of the line numbers in your in-text citation corresponds to the order of the quotations in your prose. The following provides an example:

The opening lines of Homer’s  Odyssey tell us that Odysseus, a “complicated man,” “wandered and was lost” after he and the other Greeks “wrecked the holy town of Troy” (lines 1, 3, and 2). Work Cited Homer.  The Odyssey . Translated by Emily Wilson, W. W. Norton, 2018.

Read our related post on citing quotations that are on nonconsecutive pages .

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How to Cite a Poem in Harvard Referencing

• 4-minute read
• 30th August 2020

If you’re writing about poetry in an essay, knowing how to reference a poem is vital. But how does this work? In this post, we explain how to cite a poem in Harvard referencing , including both in the text and in the reference list.

‘Harvard referencing’ is another name for parenthetical author–date referencing . This might sound technical, but all it means in practice is that you cite sources by giving the author’s name and a year of publication in brackets. We could cite a poem like this, for instance:

‘The Fly’ is notable for its unusual choice of subject (Blake, 1794).

Here, we’re citing ‘The Fly’ by William Blake using its original publication date. We would then give full source details in the reference list .

Quoting Poetry

Quoting poetry can be a little different to quoting prose in two respects:

• The kind of pinpoint citation you include.
• How you present quoted poetry on the page.

In terms of pinpoint citations, you may want to use line numbers rather than page numbers, especially if the version you’re quoting includes them.

In terms of presentation, meanwhile, if you’re quoting a single line from a poem, you would quote it like you would any other source:

Donne (1633, line 3) writes, ‘It sucked me first, and now sucks thee’.

But for two or three lines, you will also need to use a forward slash to mark the line breaks. For example:

The poem begins ‘Mark but this flea, and mark in this,/How little that which thou deniest me is’ (Donne, 1633, lines 1-2).

And for longer passages, you should set the poem out as it is in the source:

In the final stanza, Donne (1633, lines 18-22) writes:

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Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?

This helps to preserve the flow of the poem you are quoting.

Poems in a Harvard Reference List

The correct format for a poem in a Harvard reference list depends on where you found it. The three most common formats are as follows:

• For a poem published as a standalone book , reference it as a book .
• If the poem is part of a collection or anthology of work by various poets, reference it as a chapter from an edited book .
• For a poem found online , reference it as a page from a website .

You can see examples of Harvard-style references for a few poems below:

Blake, W. (1794) ‘The Fly’, Poets.org [Online]. Available at https://poets.org/poem/fly (Accessed 17 July 2020).

Donne, J. (1633) ‘The Flea’, in Ferguson, M. W., Salter, M. J. and Stallworthy, J. (eds) The Norton Anthology of Poetry , New York, W.W. Norton (this edition 1996), p. 12.

Eliot, T. S. (1922) The Wasteland , London, Faber & Faber (this edition 2019).

Note that, where relevant, we’ve included the date of the edition (or the anthology in which a poem is reproduced) as well as the original date of publication. This is to help the reader find the version you’ve used.

Harvard Variations and Proofreading

For this post, we use a version of Harvard referencing based on the Open University guide [PDF] . However, the exact rules for citing a poem in Harvard referencing may depend on the version of the system you’re using, so make sure to check your style guide if you have one.

And if you want to be extra sure your written work is error free, including your referencing, it pays to have it proofread! Why not submit a free sample document today and find out how our expert editors can help you ensure clarity and consistency in your writing?

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How to Cite a Poem in Chicago Footnote Referencing

4-minute read

• 17th March 2020

If you’re studying literature, there’s a good chance you’ll write about poetry in your work . 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 footnote citation looks like depends on where you found the poem:

• 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.
• For poems found online, cite them as a page on a website.

The two most common formats are probably the edited book and website formats. We will look at these in more detail below.

Citing a Poem from an Edited Book

If a poem is from an edited book, such as an anthology , the footnote format is:

n. Author name, “Title of poem,” in Book , ed. Editor(s) name (City: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number(s).

In practice, then, we would cite a poem from an edited book as follows:

1. Frank O’Hara, “Meditations in an Emergency,” in The Poetry of Crisis, ed. Donald Allen (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995), 197–198.

And to cite the same poem later in the document, you can use a shortened footnote format (i.e., either just the author’s surname for consecutive citations or the author’s name and the title for non-consecutive citations).

Citing a Poem from a Website

If you found a poem on a website, the footnote citation would look like this:

n. Author name, “Title of poem,” Publishing Organization or Name of Website, publication/last modified/accessed date, URL.

If the website provides a publication or modification date, then use this in the footnote. Otherwise, you can include a date of access instead:

2. Anne Carson, “The Glass Essay,” Poetry Foundation, accessed January 29, 2020. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48636/the-glass-essay.

As above, you can use a shortened footnote format for repeat citations.

Quoting a Poem in Chicago Referencing

When you quote a poem in Chicago referencing, you can also give line or stanza numbers after the page numbers in a citation. For instance, if we quoted lines 14 and 15 of a poem, we would cite it like this:

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3. Frank O’Hara, “Meditations in an Emergency,” in The Poetry of Crisis, ed. Donald Allen (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995), 197–198, lines 14–15.

To quote whole stanzas, moreover, use “st.” instead of “lines.”

Poems in a Chicago Reference List: Edited Book

When it comes to creating the reference list entry for a poem, the format again depends on where the poem is published. This will be similar to the first footnote citation, except you should give the author’s surname first.

Here, for example, we have the format for a poem from an edited book:

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

As you can see, we also replace “ed.” with “edited by,” move the page number in front of the publication information, and the punctuation is different.

The bibliography entry for the poem from the anthology cited above would be:

O’Hara, Frank. “Meditations in an Emergency,” in The Poetry of Crisis, edited by Donald Allen, 197–198. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.

Poems in a Chicago Reference List: Online

For a poem published online, the format is as follows:

Author Surname, First Name. “Title of Page.” Publishing Organization or Name of Website. Publication/last modified/accessed date. URL.

The poem from the website above would thus look like this:

Carson, Anne. “The Glass Essay.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed January 29, 2020. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48636/the-glass-essay.

So, whether the poem you’re citing is online or from an anthology, you can now cite it in Chicago footnote referencing. And if you’d like an expert to check your references, why not upload a document for proofreading ?

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The AI Poem Generator is an automated tool that uses advanced language technology to create unique and creative poems based on user-selected prompts and themes.

Using the AI Poem Generator is easy. Simply type in what you want the poem to be about and click generate. If you want to go into more detail, fill out the desired options from the dropdown menus, and the AI will create a poem for you instantly.

No, the AI Poem Generator is designed to assist and inspire creativity, not replace human creativity. In actual fact, we analyzed poetry created by art, and we see it more as a tool than a replacement for human poets . It augments the writing process by offering suggestions and generating content based on inputs. With this, the AI Poem Generator is best used as a tool to help spark your poetic writing.

We support any language, from English to Spanish, to French, to the likes of Mandarin. If you find the language you want the poem to be created in is not on the dropdown above, please get in contact with us , and we can tweak the generator to include your language.

Write a prompt to begin with of what you want the poem to be about. The more detail you go into here, adding keywords, the better. Once done, use the dropdown options to add extras, such as topics and forms (like a haiku, sonnet, limerick, etc.) until you feel you have enough information to create your unique poem. Once done, press the ‘Generate Poem’ button, and your masterpiece of poetry will generate!

The Poem Analysis AI Poem Generator utilizes a large language model to create poetry from prompts and options selected. This helps to create better results when it comes to creating poetry for the first time or for the seasoned poet, which we believe can help provide inspiration, especially when experiencing writer’s block.

The content generated by our AI poem generator is purely algorithmically generated and based on sophisticated natural language processing technology. The resulting poems are automatically generated and do not reflect the personal opinions, views, or intentions of Poem Analysis. We cannot guarantee the accuracy, relevance, or quality of the generated content, as it is created in an automated manner.

The poems produced by the AI poem generator are meant for entertainment, educational, and creative purposes only. They should not be considered as professional advice, opinions, or expressions of individuals. The poems may contain errors, inaccuracies, or inconsistencies, and users are encouraged to exercise their own judgment and discretion when interpreting or using the generated content. It is also recommended to generate to improve the quality of the output poem iteratively.

We are not responsible for any actions taken based on the generated poems, nor for any outcomes or consequences resulting from their use. Users of the AI poem generator acknowledge that the generated content is algorithmically produced and may not accurately represent their own thoughts, beliefs, or emotions, just like Poem Analysis. By using the AI poem generator, users agree to the terms of this disclaimer and understand that the generated content is automatically generated without human intervention. We reserve the right to modify, update, or discontinue the AI poem generator at any time without prior notice.

Please note that the AI poem generator is a creative tool and should be used with an understanding of its limitations and automated nature.

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The Victorian Era

An introduction to a period of seismic social change and poetic expansion.

By Rudyard Kipling, read by James Barbour

Behind the mask of Rudyard Kipling’s confidence.

Poetic Presidents

We’ve matched 12 commanders-in-chief with the poets that inspired them.

Sestina of the Tramp-Royal

The song of the banjo, the long trail, the bell buoy.

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Rudyard Kipling is one of the best-known of the late Victorian poets and story-tellers. Although he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907, his political views, which grew more toxic as he aged, have long made him critically unpopular. In the New Yorker,...

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Election Updates: Trump tells an antiabortion group that he stands ‘side by side’ with them.

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Jazmine Ulloa

Voto Latino’s survey also found independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. poses a bigger threat to Biden among likely Latino voters than he does to former President Donald J. Trump. Biden beat Trump 59 to 39 percent in a hypothetical two-way matchup, but his support fell by 12 percentage points to 47 percent when the race included Kennedy and two others; Trump lost only 5 points and came in at 34 percent.

Voto Latino, an election advocacy group, has released a wide-ranging survey of 2,000 Latino voters in the battleground states of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, Texas and Pennsylvania. It found 18 percent of likely Latino voters are leaning toward a third-party presidential candidate, a high number five months ahead of the election. President Biden won likely Latino voters overall but seriously underperformed.

Maggie Astor

The Democratic National Committee is giving about $2 million to state parties in 11 states that aren’t presidential battlegrounds. This includes money to organize communities like students and apartment residents in blue states like Colorado and Minnesota, as well as for down-ballot races in red states like Indiana and Kansas, where Democrats hope to break Republican supermajorities in state legislatures.

Former President Donald J. Trump responded angrily on Sunday, both at a rally and online, to an ad from President Biden’s campaign highlighting several occasions when Trump reportedly disparaged veterans . “Obviously, I never said that dead Soldiers are ‘losers and suckers,’” he wrote on social media. “Who would say such a thing? It was MADE UP DISINFORMATION by Radical Left Democrats.”

Trump pledged support to an organization that wants abortion ‘eradicated entirely.’

Former President Donald J. Trump promised on Monday to join forces with the leaders of the Danbury Institute, a Christian coalition of churches, organizations and conservative activists that wants abortion “eradicated entirely” in the United States.

“Now is the time for us to all pull together and stand up for our values and freedom,” Mr. Trump said in a video address to the organization. “I’ll be with you side by side.”

Mr. Trump did not mention abortion in his remarks. But he promised that the organization would “make a comeback like no other” in a second Trump administration. “These are going to be your years,” he pledged.

“You just can’t vote Democrat — they’re against religion,” Mr. Trump continued. “They’re against your religion in particular.”

The Danbury Institute, which was meeting in Indianapolis as part of the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, opposes abortion in all cases, including rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at risk. The group has also asserted that life begins at the moment of fertilization, a belief that is commonly used to support restrictions on some kinds of fertility treatments and contraception.

In a panel that preceded Mr. Trump’s address, supporters of the organization urged the antiabortion movement to go further and oppose ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions.

“We need to pressure our legislators to remember that they are under God,” said Tom Ascol, a prominent Southern Baptist preacher. “Jesus Christ rules and reigns in this world. They are accountable to him.”

Not long before Mr. Trump spoke, Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, pushed for Southern Baptists to, for the first time, issue a resolution opposing in vitro fertilization.

Mr. Trump has sought to take credit for the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a 6-to-3 decision in which three justices he appointed were in the majority. But he has also said that he would not sign a 15-week federal abortion ban and that he believes restrictions, including whether to prosecute women for abortions or monitor pregnancies, should be left to the states.

The Biden campaign — eager to discuss abortion rights, an issue it believes will motivate women in November — blasted Mr. Trump’s decision to address the organization.

“If you want to know who Trump will fight for in a second term, look at who he’s spending his time speaking to: antiabortion extremists who call abortion ‘child sacrifice’ and want to ‘eradicate’ abortion ‘entirely,’” said Sarafina Chitika, a campaign spokeswoman. “A second Trump term is sure to bring more extreme abortion bans with no exceptions.”

Chris Cameron and Ken Bensinger

Steve Bannon and others on the right celebrate European Parliament elections.

Stephen K. Bannon, the onetime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump who has been ordered to surrender by July 1 to begin serving a prison sentence, celebrated the performance of far-right candidates in the recent European Parliament elections.

Speaking on his “War Room” podcast on Monday, Mr. Bannon proclaimed that “Europe’s on fire with the right,” pointing to strong results for right-wing parties and candidates in France, Germany, Belgium and Ireland.

Other influential figures on the right, including Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate, and Matt Schlapp, the chairman of one of the largest conservative advocacy groups in the United States, praised far-right leaders in Europe on Monday for making serious gains in the elections, and they sought to tie the results to domestic politics.

A far-right wave did not fully materialize , as was feared by many in the European political establishment, and voters largely backed centrists in the parliamentary elections.

“We don’t know what will happen with these elections,” Mr. Schlapp wrote on social media, though he also told Newsmax that “we do know that in all these countries, the center-right party has to try to make allegiances with these new populist parties.” Mr. Schlapp described those parties as “MAGA-type” parties.

Mr. Bannon conceded that voters were not universally enthusiastic about right-of-center movements, in light of worse than expected showings in Spain, Italy and Sweden. But he nonetheless highlighted the performance of far-right parties in countries like France and Germany and suggested that the results were a bellwether of the electoral mood in the United States.

“This is laying a predicate for the election like Brexit did” in 2015, Mr. Bannon said, implying that President Biden would lose in November.

Biden goes abroad again, and Trump turns 78: the week ahead in politics.

President Biden, who has just returned from a trip to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, will fly back to Europe this week for a summit of the leaders of the Group of 7 nations, while former President Donald J. Trump will campaign at home in a week capped by a birthday celebration. He will turn 78 on Friday.

Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak virtually on Monday at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, a conservative Christian organization that describes abortion as “child sacrifice on the altar of self” and calls for the procedure to be “eradicated.”

That event will be a test of Mr. Trump’s balancing act on abortion: boasting that his three Supreme Court appointees helped overturn Roe v. Wade while not endorsing a federal abortion ban — and satisfying the anti-abortion stalwarts who helped elect him to the White House while not alienating the pro-abortion-rights swing voters whom he needs to win a second term.

On Thursday, he is expected to attend an event in Washington hosted by Business Roundtable, a major business lobbying group, and on Friday he has a birthday party in Florida.

Mr. Biden’s trip to the Group of 7 summit, which will begin in Italy on Thursday and last through Saturday, comes not only on the heels of his visit to France but also ahead of a NATO summit in Washington next month. The meeting will give him an opportunity to demonstrate his administration’s unity with other Western countries on behalf of Ukraine.

But it is also likely to present challenges : Mr. Biden is increasingly isolated from the international community in his continued support for Israel, to which he is still sending weapons even as he criticizes its actions in Gaza. That support has hurt him with his own party as well, and thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday outside the White House to call for an immediate cease-fire (which Mr. Biden supports) and for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel (which he opposes).

Around the time of that protest, Mr. Biden was meeting with the president of France and visiting a cemetery for U.S. soldiers killed in World War I. (Mr. Trump declined to visit the same cemetery six years ago.) And Vice President Kamala Harris was in Michigan, a key swing state, attending a Democratic dinner and calling Mr. Trump a “cheater” who “thinks he is above the law.”

On Sunday, prominent Biden supporters, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Democrat of Michigan, and Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, appeared on the morning news shows on the president’s behalf — as did several prominent Republicans on behalf of Mr. Trump.

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan

The president of the Teamsters wants to speak at both party conventions.

The president of the Teamsters union has asked for speaking slots at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, at a time when President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump have pressed for support from rank-and-file members of organized labor.

The move by Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, underscores the fact that his group, unlike other influential umbrella unions that have backed Mr. Biden in the 2024 election, has yet to endorse in the presidential race. Mr. O’Brien has made clear he is delaying a decision until later this year.

Kara Deniz, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters union, confirmed that Mr. O’Brien, through aides, has told officials working on both conventions that he would be interested in speaking at their dayslong nomination events. The Republicans will hold their convention in Milwaukee in July, and the Democrats will hold theirs in Chicago in August.

It would be unusual in the current fractious political climate for someone to speak at both conventions.

Over the course of the year, Mr. O’Brien has invited several presidential candidates, including Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump and independent candidates like Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to speak before his group. But Mr. O’Brien has what people close to Mr. Trump believe is a developing relationship with the former president.

The Teamsters is one of the country’s largest labor unions, with 1.3 million members in sectors like trucking and manufacturing. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the United Automobile Workers have backed Mr. Biden, and Shawn Fain, the president of the U.A.W., has been harshly critical of Mr. Trump.

Mr. O’Brien, however, has appeared more open to the former president.

Mr. O’Brien had a private meeting with Mr. Trump at the beginning of the year at Mar-a-Lago, shortly before the Iowa caucuses that the former president won handily, setting him on a path to become his party’s nominee for a third time.

The following month, the Teamsters gave $45,000 to both the Republican and Democratic convention funds, with officials saying the goal was to make sure its rank-and-file members are heard at the convention.

Mr. Biden has described himself as the most pro-labor president in history. And in 2020, he cut into what had been Mr. Trump’s advantage with working-class white voters in the 2016 presidential campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That year, Mr. Trump’s appeal to voters in the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania was key to his victory.

Also that year, some of Mr. Trump’s allies, including Paul Manafort , his onetime campaign chairman, tried working connections in the labor movement to see if they could peel off support for Mrs. Clinton from organized labor.

This year, as Mr. Biden has struggled in the Sun Belt swing states, such as Arizona, his path through white working-class states in the Rust Belt is seen as key.

While Mr. Trump’s camp is hopeful for an endorsement, it has been decades since the Teamsters backed a Republican presidential candidate. But keeping the Teamsters neutral would be viewed as a victory for the Trump team. And even absent an endorsement, having Mr. O’Brien at the Republican National Convention would be politically useful to Mr. Trump, who often highlights relationships to score political points.

The Teamsters endorsed Mr. Biden in 2020, although their support came relatively late in the general election campaign, well after it was clear that the then-candidate would be the presumptive Democratic nominee.

A spokeswoman who represents both the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment about whether the GOP will grant Mr. O’Brien a speaking slot.

Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, did not address whether the Democrats will give Mr. O’Brien a slot.

“There’s only one candidate in this race fighting for American workers and creating good-paying union jobs here at home, and that’s President Biden,” Mr. Munoz said, saying that Mr. Trump “has spent his entire life fighting against workers’ rights” and that Mr. Biden “will continue to work to earn the Teamsters’ support.”

Mr. O’Brien was elected president of the union on a wave of reformist energy in 2021. But unlike some umbrella unions that have backed Mr. Biden, Mr. O’Brien has a number of members in southern states who support the former president. And whatever his personal relationship with Mr. Trump, there is likely a benefit to Mr. O’Brien with his own members in being seen as open to talking to Republicans.

Reporting from Washington

Assessing Trump’s Denial That He’s Called Veterans ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’

Former President Donald J. Trump has again denied denouncing service members as “losers” and “suckers” after a Biden campaign ad highlighted critical comments he reportedly made of the military.

“Donald Trump doesn’t know a damn thing about service to his country,” President Biden wrote on Friday in a social media post accompanying the ad.

The ad highlights nine derogatory remarks Mr. Trump has made about service members, including calling them “losers” and “suckers.” Most of the reported quotations occurred in private conversations, and other news outlets or people have confirmed many of them.

Still, Mr. Trump disputes ever making them. At a campaign rally on Sunday in Las Vegas and on social media , he called the claims “disinformation” and “made up out of thin air.”

The Biden campaign, in the ad, cited a 2020 article in The Atlantic about Mr. Trump’s remarks for a majority of the quotations. The story relied on anonymous sources, but many of the accounts have been corroborated by outlets, including The New York Times, and by John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who served as Mr. Trump’s White House chief of staff.

Mr. Trump, for his part, has repeatedly and emphatically denied making those remarks since the article was published in September 2020, telling reporters then : “For somebody to say the things that they say I said is a total lie. It’s fake news. It’s a disgrace.”

Other comments quoted in the campaign ad were audio snippets of Mr. Trump himself or attributed to a Democratic congresswoman. Two of these quotes omitted context that would give a different impression of Mr. Trump’s comments.

Here’s a breakdown of the quotations.

Remarks from The Atlantic are anonymously attributed, but corroborated

Five of the quotations in the Biden campaign ad were reported in The Atlantic in 2020.

The article begins with an account of Mr. Trump’s decision during a 2018 trip to France to forgo a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery , where American soldiers are buried. At the time, Mr. Trump and his aides said that rain had necessitated canceling the helicopter ride to the cemetery, but his absence was criticized at home and abroad.

But according to The Atlantic, that was not true. Rather, Mr. Trump was worried that the weather would mess up his hair and did not think the trip was important. The Atlantic reported that in private conversations, Mr. Trump had said: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” and called the soldiers buried there “suckers” for being killed.

The Atlantic also reported that while standing by the grave of Robert Kelly, Mr. Kelly’s son who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010, Mr. Trump had asked: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

And according to The Atlantic, after receiving a briefing from Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mr. Trump also asked aides: “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”

Lastly, The Atlantic reported that when Senator John McCain, one of Mr. Trump’s few Republican critics, died in 2018, Mr. Trump said, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral.”

The Washington Post and Jennifer Griffin, the chief national security reporter for Fox News, confirmed that Mr. Trump had privately disparaged veterans and soldiers. The Post reported that Mr. Trump had called people who served in the Vietnam War “losers,” while Ms. Griffin reported that Mr. Trump used the term “sucker” and asked, “What’s in it for them?”

John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, told The Times that he did not personally hear Mr. Trump use those words on the 2018 trip but that the reported comments were not out of character.

Mr. Kelly confirmed in 2023 that Mr. Trump had used the terms “suckers” and “losers” to describe wounded soldiers and those who were killed or missing in action.

Mr. Kelly also said that Mr. Trump did not want to stand next to military amputees because “it doesn’t look good for me.” (The Biden ad attributed this particular quote to The Atlantic. The article quotes Mr. Trump saying, while asking his staff to omit wounded veterans from military parades, “Nobody wants to see that.”)

Mr. Trump has publicly called Mr. McCain a “loser” on social media and in a 2015 event . And Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security at the time, told The Times that Mr. Trump was unhappy that flags were lowered to half-staff when the senator died. (Mr. Trump was not invited to Mr. McCain’s funeral.)

A Democratic congresswoman’s quotation has also been corroborated

The Biden campaign ad also includes one remark from Representative Frederica S. Wilson, Democrat of Florida.

In October 2017, Mr. Trump spoke on the phone with the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in Niger. According to Ms. Wilson, who was accompanying the widow, Mr. Trump said to Myeshia Johnson, “ I guess he knew what he was signing up for, but it still hurts.”

The Biden ad omitted the second part of that quote, Mr. Trump’s attempt at empathizing with the widow: “But it still hurts.”

Mr. Trump also denied making this remark , and claimed he had “proof.” His press secretary at the time said that the call was not recorded but confirmed his account.

But Ms. Johnson soon corroborated Ms. Wilson’s account and said that Mr. Trump’s condolence call made her angry and upset her even more, especially as he struggled to remember her husband’s name. Sergeant Johnson’s mother also backed up Ms. Wilson’s account.

Trump’s own words

The Biden campaign ad includes audio of Mr. Trump speaking at several events.

In one widely reported 2015 event, Mr. Trump said of Mr. McCain : “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

The comments kicked off a storm of criticism, and Mr. Trump defended his remarks at the time by misleadingly claiming that he had agreed four times that Mr. McCain was a hero.

The ad also includes — and omits important context from — audio snippets from a 2016 campaign rally: “He handed me his Purple Heart” and “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”

In a 2016 rally in Ashburn, Va., Mr. Trump recounted the enthusiasm of his crowds and gave as an example “something very nice” that had “just happened to me.” A man gave him his Purple Heart, Mr. Trump said, and told him, “I have such confidence in you.” His joke about obtaining the Purple Heart, the medal given to soldiers wounded or killed in action, in this easier fashion was met with applause and laughter.

Mr. Trump added that “it was such an honor,” which the Biden campaign ad omitted.

At the time, the comment and Mr. Trump’s acceptance of the medal ignited more controversy. A spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart said recipients are entitled to give them away , but he said that owning one without having earned it was an act of stolen valor.

The recipient of the Purple Heart later said that he gave Mr. Trump the medal because he thought Mr. Trump would make a great commander in chief and he wanted to remind him of “all the people that have fought and died for this country.”

Kellen Browning

Trump endorses Sam Brown in Nevada’s key Senate race.

Former President Donald J. Trump on Sunday said he was endorsing Sam Brown, the Army veteran who is leading the crowded Republican primary field in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race.

“Sam Brown is a fearless American patriot,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, adding that Mr. Brown would “fight tirelessly” to protect the border and improve the economy.

The endorsement, though belated — the primary is on June 11 and early voting has already ended — solidifies Mr. Brown’s standing as the front-runner and heavy favorite to advance to November’s general election against Senator Jacky Rosen, the Democratic incumbent. He has raised more money than his primary rivals, received the endorsement of the state’s Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, and led by double-digits in every recent poll of the race, though most were commissioned by his own campaign.

Mr. Trump’s opinion was the sole remaining question mark. Though he is campaigning as a strong supporter of the former president, Mr. Brown was late to formally back Mr. Trump’s bid for a second term, and his primary rivals sought to capitalize from the right. Jeff Gunter, a wealthy dermatologist and Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Iceland, staked out a position as a MAGA candidate, slamming Mr. Brown in television advertisements as he angled for a possible endorsement from Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has shared images promoting Mr. Brown’s dominance in Nevada polls on Truth Social, and he praised both Mr. Brown and Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman and prominent election denier who is also running for Senate, in an interview with a local television station in late May.

In a post on X, Mr. Brown said he was “honored” to have Mr. Trump’s endorsement. “I look forward to working with you to bring a better future to every Nevadan and American when we both win in November,” Mr. Brown said.

Ms. Rosen’s campaign criticized the endorsement from Mr. Trump on Sunday.

“Nevadans want a Senator who will work across party lines to deliver for our state, not a MAGA extremist like Sam Brown who will always put partisan politics and pleasing Trump ahead of doing what’s right,” said Johanna Warsaw, a spokeswoman for Ms. Rosen’s campaign.

In a statement, Mr. Gunter said, “Mitch McConnell money wins, the American people lose,” referring to his recurrent line of attack that Mr. Brown is the pick of the Washington establishment. “Rinse and repeat,” Mr. Gunter added.

Mr. Brown, a former Army captain, was nearly killed in Afghanistan in 2008 when his vehicle ran over an explosive device set by the Taliban. Severely burned, he was evacuated to a burn unit in the United States and underwent more than 30 surgeries during a three-year recovery. The injury left him permanently scarred.

He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 2014, before moving with his wife to Reno in 2018. In 2022, he lost in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate to Adam Laxalt, the state’s former attorney general. Mr. Laxalt was defeated in the general election by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, whose victory allowed Democrats to keep control of the chamber.

Assuming Mr. Brown advances to the general election, he could be buoyed by Mr. Trump’s strong numbers in Nevada, which has not voted for a Republican at the presidential level since 2004 but is shaping up to be one of President Biden’s shakiest states in November.

Nevada’s economy, heavily reliant on tourism, was slower to recover from the coronavirus pandemic than other states were, and Ms. Rosen has sought to distance herself from Mr. Biden as she tries to retain her Senate seat.

Michael Gold

Reporting from Las Vegas

In Las Vegas, Trump appeals to local workers and avoids talk of his conviction.

Former President Donald J. Trump stood in blazing heat in a Las Vegas park on Sunday and directly appealed to working-class voters by promising to eliminate taxes on tips for hospitality workers.

But beyond that proposal, little at Mr. Trump’s campaign rally suggested that his new status as a felon had changed his message. And when Mr. Trump’s teleprompter apparently stopped working, his speech — which his campaign advisers had billed as focused on issues of local concern to Nevada voters — devolved into familiar stories and riffs.

“I got no teleprompters, and I haven’t from the beginning,” Mr. Trump said after speaking for roughly 15 minutes, though his speech included excerpts from prepared remarks that his campaign had provided to reporters. “That probably means we’ll make a better speech now.”

Mr. Trump repeatedly voiced his frustration with the lack of a teleprompter, even though he has often boasted of his ability to give long speeches without one.

His remarks, which lasted roughly an hour, felt unfocused as he cycled through well-worn territory, railing against electric vehicles, immigration, the four criminal cases brought against him and President Biden’s physical and mental condition.

Once again, Mr. Trump broadly depicted migrants crossing the border illegally as violent criminals or mentally ill people, and then recited “The Snake,” a standby poem he has used since 2016 to expound on the threat that he believes undocumented immigrants pose to the country.

He continued to revive his unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election. And he baselessly insisted Democrats would try to cheat in November, sowing doubt about the general election months before a single vote has been cast.

“Don’t let them cheat,” he told the crowd in Nevada. “You watch that vote and watch it all the way.”

Mr. Trump again praised the mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling them “J6 warriors,” suggesting they had legitimate reasons to try to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election and saying that they had somehow been “set up” that day.

“They were warriors, but they’re really, more than anything else, they’re victims of what happened,” Mr. Trump said. “All they were doing were protesting a rigged election.”

Mr. Trump said next to nothing about his recent conviction on 34 felony charges in Manhattan, but he lamented the four times he was indicted last year as a “disgrace.” Still, a number of people at the rally wore shirts reading “I’m voting for the convicted felon.”

Much as he did at a town-hall-style forum last week in Phoenix, Mr. Trump spoke at length about immigration, saying that Mr. Biden’s border policies constituted an “all-out war” on Black and Hispanic Americans.

Mr. Trump again criticized Mr. Biden’s recent executive order meant to deter illegal crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico, calling it “weak,” “ineffective” and garbage, though he used an expletive.

In response, the crowd began chanting the expletive, as his supporters did in Arizona when he used the same description. “This word seems to be catching on a little bit,” Mr. Trump said approvingly. (When Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, spoke before Mr. Trump took the stage, her remarks prompted three identical chants.)

At the rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, the Trump campaign formally announced its Latino outreach effort, known as Latino Americans for Trump , and a number of Hispanic Americans spoke before Mr. Trump did.

Nevada has a large Hispanic population, and polls show that Mr. Trump’s support among the state’s working-class and Latino voters is increasing. His campaign is trying to capitalize on dissatisfaction among those groups with Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy.

Linda Fornos, a Las Vegas resident who came to the United States from Nicaragua, said that she voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 but that she was disappointed with his administration. “For many years, I believed in the promises of the Democrats for more opportunities for the Latino community,” she said.

Mr. Trump’s pledge to eliminate taxes on tips for restaurant and hospitality workers was a direct appeal to that group, a significant force in the Las Vegas area. “When I get into office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips,” he said.

After the rally, the Culinary Workers Union, a key part of the Democratic coalition in the state, attacked Mr. Trump’s proposal as hollow.

“Relief is definitely needed for tip earners, but Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and wild campaign promises from a convicted felon,” Ted Pappageorge, the secretary-treasurer of the union, which has 60,000 members, said in a statement.

Mr. Trump’s rally in Nevada, a key battleground state, concluded a multiple-day Western swing that started on Thursday with a forum in Phoenix hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action.

As record-high temperatures hit Phoenix, at least 11 people at that indoor event were taken to the hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion. The Trump campaign took steps to avoid similar issues in Las Vegas, where the heat was less severe but where the rally was held outside. At least six people on Sunday were taken from the event to the hospital, according to the Clark County Fire Department.

After his speech in Phoenix, Mr. Trump attended three fund-raisers in California and one in Las Vegas. Chris LaCivita, one of Mr. Trump’s two campaign managers, said that the campaign had raised about $27.5 million across the four events, a figure that cannot be independently verified until campaign filings are made public in the coming months.

Tester and Sheehy attack — and agree — in first debate of Montana’s Senate race.

Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, and Tim Sheehy, his Republican opponent in the state’s U.S. Senate race this year, faced off on Sunday in a debate that served as the opening bell for a high-profile contest that could determine control of the chamber.

Mr. Tester, a third-term incumbent, and Mr. Sheehy, a business owner and former Navy SEAL, alternated between agreeing and attacking each other, as the hourlong debate ping-ponged between national issues like the border crisis and local priorities like Montana’s meatpacking industry.

Running for his fourth term in a deep-red state, Mr. Tester demonstrated why he has been such a difficult target for Republicans. He was quick to distance himself from President Biden, who is unpopular among Montanans, and repeatedly emphasized his bipartisan reputation. He said he had broken with Mr. Biden’s administration on immigration and energy, positioning himself as a proponent of fossil fuel use and calling some of Mr. Biden’s energy regulations “unacceptable.”

“The bottom line is: He doesn’t listen to me enough,” Mr. Tester said of Mr. Biden. “He needs to.”

Mr. Sheehy laid out a vision of a nation on the brink, and he did his best to tie Mr. Tester to it. Mr. Sheehy repeatedly took aim at the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, an issue that Republicans have pushed to the forefront, as they accuse their opponents of encouraging a flood of illegal migration into the country. And he denounced what he said were lowered standards in the workplace and the military, criticizing diversity initiatives and an emphasis on higher education over blue-collar jobs.

“We’ve seen runaway spending,” Mr. Sheehy said. “We’ve seen an executive branch of government that’s running out of control. We see a wide-open southern border, record-high interest rates, record-high inflation. And Jon Tester supported Biden’s agenda 95 percent of the time.”

The race in Montana is expected to be one of the most competitive in an election cycle that has Democrats playing defense as Republicans try to regain the Senate. Mr. Tester’s campaign has a significant financial advantage over Mr. Sheehy’s, but the few polls of the race have shown the two men essentially tied.

Sunday’s debate, hosted by the Montana Broadcasters Association and the Greater Montana Foundation, gave voters an early opportunity to see the candidates battle each other. But on many issues, they were quick to find common ground. Mr. Tester and Mr. Sheehy agreed on support for Israel, greater assistance for mental health services and a need to be tougher on meatpacking conglomerates.

“We agree on more than we disagree,” Mr. Sheehy said in response to a question about political polarization.

Still, areas of sharp contrast did not go unnoticed.

Mr. Tester, a third-generation farmer from Montana, took aim at the surge of wealthy out-of-state transplants , who have driven up housing prices. He hit Mr. Sheehy, who grew up in Minnesota and moved to Montana a decade ago, on his background.

“We’ve had a lot of folks move into this state, a lot of folks with thick wallets,” he said. “On the housing front, Tim Sheehy’s not the solution — he’s part of the problem.”

Mr. Sheehy, who owns an aerial firefighting company and a stake in a cattle ranch, argued that he had done plenty to help Montanans, including by creating jobs.

“If you’re not from here, Jon Tester doesn’t think your voice matters, apparently,” he said.

Mr. Tester also attacked Mr. Sheehy for saying he would have voted against a bill that provided aid to Ukraine and Taiwan. And Mr. Tester was perhaps at his most animated on abortion, after Mr. Sheehy argued that voters did not want “elective abortions up to and including the moment of birth.”

“Tim, this is too important of an issue to play politics with,” Mr. Tester replied. “For you to say they’re killing babies at 40 weeks is total BS.”

Mr. Sheehy hit Mr. Tester for being a major recipient of lobbyist donations and argued that he had his chance to push for improvements in areas like health care for veterans and had come up short.

“We cannot keep sending the same politicians to Washington over and over and over again,” Mr. Sheehy said.

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