How to Cite a Poem Title in MLA Format

In-text Citation

• 1

  Place quotations marks around the quote if you cite three or fewer lines of poetry. Use a slash to show line breaks in the poem.

• 2

  Add, in parenthesis after the second quotation mark, the author's last name followed by the line of the poem that is quoted. Do not separate the author's last name and the poem lines with a comma.

• 3

  Place a period at the end of the parenthesis.

• 4

  Block indent the poem ten spaces from the left margin if you quote four or more lines of poetry.

• 5

  Add the lines of the poetry you are quoting in parenthesis at the end of the last line. Do not add a period after the parenthesis.

Works Cited Page

• 6

  List sources in alphabetical order separated by double spaces between each entry.

• 7

  Write the author's last name and first name separated by a comma. Place quotation marks around the title of the poem. Write the title of the anthology or the book the poem is from followed by the author of the book, the city of publication, the publisher and the year it was published.

  For example:

  Keats, John. "Ode to a Grecian Urn" The Norton Anthology of Poetry. By Margaret W. Ferguson, Mary Jo. Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

• 8

  Refer to additional examples of works cited pages for further reference.