I'm writing a paper. But, I don't know how to quote lines from the poem itself. How would I do it?
There are a number of style guides used today including the American Psychological Association (APA) formatting and style guide; the Chicago Manuel of Style; and the Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide.
Let us assume that you are to use MLA, the preferred guide for literary analysis.
IN-TEXT PARENTHETICAL CITATION:
[Add the word “line” in the first citation. In subsequent citations, you may just put the line number. For example, first time: (Plath line 3); thereafter: (Plath 3) or (3), if you are only discussing one poem.]
1. Quote one line of poetry in the text by simply enclosing the quoted material in quotation marks and adding a lead-in and an in-text citation. Add a comma after the lead-in. For example: Sylvia Plath describes the speaker’s perception of her physical appearance by saying, “An elephant, a ponderous house” (Plath line 2).
2. Quote up to three lines of poetry the same way you quote one line, except use slash / marks, with spaces on each side, to indicate line breaks. For example: Sylvia Plath describes the speaker’s perception of her physical appearance by saying, “An elephant, a ponderous house / A melon strolling on two tendrils / O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!” (Plath lines 2-4).
3. Quote four or more lines of a poem using block format. This means that instead of enclosing it in quotation marks, the quotation should be on a separate line from the lead-in and indented 10 spaces. Each line of the poem should be a separate line in the block quote. For block quotes, end the lead-in with a colon. For example: Plath’s speaker lets her unexpected feelings about pregnancy be known: Money’s
new-minted in this fat purse. I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.I’ve eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there’s no getting off. (lines 6-9). It is impossible to show such indentation in Yahoo Answers; however, an example is shown on p. 3 at http://www.fb3.uni-siegen.de/downloads/2…
WORKS CITED: Each work parenthetically cited in the text of your paper MUST be included in your Works Cited section. For MLA Works Cited style and format, please see: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour…
Good luck!
could you use a footnote? and then site the work and the author
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