How to Cite Poems in MLA, APA and Chicago
To cite a poem, you name the poet, put the poem's title in quotation marks, and give the book, anthology or website where you read it. In MLA 9th edition, the format for a poem in a collection is Last, First. "Poem Title." Book Title, Publisher, Year, pp. xx-xx. When you quote, MLA uses line numbers rather than page numbers if the lines are numbered, with "line" or "lines" in the first citation. Short quotes of up to three lines run inside your sentence with a slash ( / ) marking each line break. APA 7 and Chicago 17 follow similar ideas with their own formats, shown below.
MLA is the style most often used for poetry analysis, so we start there.
MLA 9th edition
Poem in a single-author collection
Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." Mountain Interval, Henry Holt, 1916, p. [page].
Add the page number from the edition you actually use; page numbers vary between printings and editions.
Poem in an anthology
When an editor compiled the book, add "edited by":
Lindqvist, Maja. "Low Tide." Voices from the River Delta, edited by Sunita Banerjee, Northgate Publishing, 2020, pp. 112-13.
(The anthology and poet here are invented for illustration.)
Poem on a website
Lindqvist, Maja. "Low Tide." Coastal Poetry Archive, 2023, www.example.org/poems/low-tide.
Poem in a journal
Lindqvist, Maja. "Low Tide." Harbour Review, vol. 8, no. 2, 2022, p. 34.
Titles: quotation marks or italics?
Most poems are short works, so their titles go in quotation marks. A book-length poem, such as an epic published as its own volume, is italicised like a book.
Quoting poetry in MLA
Short quotations (one to three lines)
Run the quote into your sentence, use a slash with a space either side to show line breaks, and a double slash for a stanza break.
The speaker begins at a moment of choice: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both" (Frost, lines 1-2).
Keep the poem's original capitalisation and punctuation inside the quotation marks.
Long quotations (more than three lines)
Set the quote as a block, indented half an inch from the left margin, keeping the poem's line breaks exactly as printed. Don't add quotation marks. The citation goes after the final punctuation.
In the closing stanza, the speaker imagines looking back on the decision:
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, (lines 16-19)
If the original has unusual spacing or indentation, reproduce it as closely as you can.
Line numbers in in-text citations
- First citation: use the word "line" or "lines": (Frost, lines 1-2)
- Later citations: numbers alone: (Frost 16-19)
- If you've already named the poet in the sentence: (lines 1-2), then (16-19)
- If the lines aren't numbered in your source, use page numbers instead.
The comma after the author appears only when you use a label like "lines." Plain numbers follow the name with no comma.
Leaving out lines
Use an ellipsis in square brackets for omitted words. If you omit one or more full lines in a block quote, use a line of spaced periods roughly the length of a line of the poem.
APA 7th edition
APA is less common for poetry analysis, but psychology, education and social science papers sometimes quote poems.
Poem in a collection or anthology
Lindqvist, M. (2020). Low tide. In S. Banerjee (Ed.), Voices from the river delta (pp. 112–113). Northgate Publishing.
The poem title is not italicised or quoted in the reference list, and uses sentence case.
Republished classic poem
When you read an older poem in a modern edition, give both dates:
Frost, R. (2002). The road not taken. In E. Editor (Ed.), Title of anthology (p. xx). Publisher. (Original work published 1916)
In-text: (Frost, 1916/2002)
Quoting in APA
Give a page number for quotes: (Lindqvist, 2020, p. 112). Line numbers can be used where the poem's lines are numbered and your instructor prefers them. Short quotes run in with slashes for line breaks; quotes of 40 words or more go in a block.
Chicago 17th edition
Footnote, poem in a collection
- Maja Lindqvist, "Low Tide," in Voices from the River Delta, ed. Sunita Banerjee (Chicago: Northgate Publishing, 2020), 112.
Bibliography
Lindqvist, Maja. "Low Tide." In Voices from the River Delta, edited by Sunita Banerjee, 112–13. Chicago: Northgate Publishing, 2020.
Quoting in Chicago
Chicago also uses a slash with spaces for line breaks in run-in quotes, and recommends setting off quotations of two or more lines of poetry as block quotes. Line numbers may be used in notes or parenthetical references when citing a poem repeatedly.
Quick comparison
| MLA 9 | APA 7 | Chicago 17 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poem title in entry | "Quotation marks," title case | No marks, sentence case | "Quotation marks," title case |
| Locator | Line numbers ("lines" first time) | Page number (or lines if numbered) | Page or line numbers |
| Run-in limit | Up to 3 lines | Under 40 words | Generally one line; block for 2+ |
| Line break marker | / | / | / |
Writing about poems: beyond the citation
Citations show where your quote came from; analysis shows why it matters. After each quote, explain what the lines do: how the image, sound or line break shapes meaning. A useful habit is to write at least twice as much analysis as quotation.
If you're unsure about terms like metaphor, enjambment or personification, revisit the basics of figurative language before you write. And for the final draft, an English grammar check catches slips in your own prose. Remember that quoted lines should keep the poet's original grammar and punctuation, even if a checker flags them.
To format entries quickly, use the MLA citation generator and then add line numbers to your in-text citations yourself.
FAQ
Do poem titles go in italics or quotation marks?
Quotation marks for most poems. Italics for book-length poems published as standalone volumes, and for poetry collections.
How do I show line breaks when quoting a poem?
Use a slash with a space on each side ( / ). Use a double slash ( // ) for a stanza break. For four or more lines in MLA, use a block quote instead.
What if the poem has no line numbers?
Use page numbers if available. For an online poem with neither, cite the poet's name alone in MLA, or count lines yourself only if your instructor allows it.
How do I cite a poem from a song or performance?
Song lyrics and spoken-word performances have their own formats as recordings or videos. Cite the recording or performance, including the performer and where you heard or watched it.