Guide Sheet for Quoting Poetry


by Tina Blue
January 27, 2004


~There are certain rules of form that must be followed when you are quoting poetry.  Here are some of the most important ones.


1. Set up and introduce your quotations.  In other words, do not drop a quotation into your text all by itself.  It must be both grammatically and
logically integrated into a sentence of your own.  As a general rule, do not start a sentence with your quoted material.  It is possible to set a quotation up in a way that introduces the sentence with the quotation and then continues the sentence in your own words, but that is difficult to do properly, and most students should simply avoid such set-ups.  Instead, begin with your own words, introducing the quotation that completes the idea that your words are setting up.

          Here is an example of a quotation that does not fit grammatically into the sentence              that sets it up: 

                    ~The Duke shows his visitor a portrait of his last duchess, who "Fra Pandolf's hands /                          Worked busily aday, and  there she stands" (3-4).  
              
          Here is an example of a quotation that does not fit logically into the sentence that sets         it up, although its formatting is acceptable:

                    ~Toward the beginning we realize that the father is off in his own drunken world as he                      stumbles about the room and carries his boy with him ("But I hung on like death / Such                    waltzing was not easy" [3-4]).

          Although including the quotation within parentheses is perhaps a bit awkward, it is                 nonetheless grammatically acceptable. The problem is that the quoted lines do not                 illustrate or support the point that is used to set them up, so they end up being a non             sequitur. The writer has made an assertion and then offered as evidence of that                     assertion something totally irrelevant to her point.

       Here are a couple of examples from one of my articles of quoted lines that are                        properly integrated, both grammatically and logically, into the sentence that sets them            up:

                    ~In An Essay on Criticism, eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope says, "True wit is                        Nature to advantage dressed, / What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed"                           (297-298).

                    ~When we come across a poem that renews in us that sense of experiencing some small                  aspect of existence as if for the first time, the veil drops from our eyes and suddenly all                    is--as Elizabeth Bishop says in "The Fish"--"rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!" (75).




2. Quote exactly.  Follow the spelling and punctuation (including capitalization) in the original.  If you must make changes in the original to make it fit into the grammar of your own sentence, indicate those changes by enclosing them in brackets, which will signal your reader that those are changes:

          ~When the persona says that he has "miles to go before [he] sleep[s]" (15, 16), he seems to be           referring to the long, exhausting journey of life as much as to actual miles he must travel                 and obligations he must fulfill before he can go to sleep that night.

          Usually ellipsis points will not be necessary at the beginning or end of an incomplete              quotation, though they will be needed for internal omissions:

                              -------, "------- / ------ . . . -------" (14-15).

          There are also rules for the proper use of ellipsis points.  You can't just use any old                 number of dots, and you can't just space them any way you please.  For a general                   explanation of how to use ellipsis points in quotations, see "Are Those Dots Just                   for Decoration?" 

                              http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/dots.html

          on my "Grammar and Usage for the Non-Expert" website. The  examples in that article           are mostly prose, but the general rules are the same for poetry.





3. IN-TEXT and OFFSET STYLES. If you are quoting more than three lines, use offset (indented) style for your quotations.  For three lines or less, use
in-text style. Do not mix the styles.

          A. In-Text Style:  The examples above illustrate the proper format for in-text citations

          ~Set up (introduce) the quotation
          ~Use double quotation marks (Single quotation marks are British, not American, usage.)
          ~Use slash marks to indicate line breaks
          ~Leave a space on either side of the slash mark
          ~Follow the quoted material with the end-quote marks
          ~Enclose the line citations within parentheses
          ~The period follows the parentheses
          ~If there is punctuation at the end of any of the quoted lines other than the final quoted line, include                that punctuation before the slash mark
          ~There is no punctuation at the end of the quoted material just before the end-quote marks, unless the           quoted material ends with a question mark or an exclamation point that you need to leave in the                   quotation to make your point clear:

                                        -----------, "--------------- / ---------------" (22-23).

                                        ----------- "---------------, / ----------------. / ---------------" (22-24).

but

                    ~When the persona cries, "Ah!" (6), he is expressing his delight over the beauty of the                       scene.

                    ~The Duke is being condescending when he asks, "Will't please you rise?" (47).  He is                        actually giving an order, not making a request.



          B. For Offset Quotations (more than three lines)

          ~Indent the quotation ten spaces in from the left margin (or use the "right indent" icon on your                         word processor to achieve the necessary indentation) 
          ~Do not enclose the quoted passage in quotation marks (That would be mixing styles.)
            Line citations will follow rather than precede the period in offset quotations:

                              Whose woods these are I think I know.
                              His house is in the village though.
                              He will not see me stopping here
                              To watch his woods fill up with snow.
                                                                                          (1-4)

          ~If the offset quotation has omissions, they will be indicated (by ellipsis points) where they occur:

                              Whose woods these are I think I know.
                              His house is in the village though.
                              He will not see me stopping here
                              To watch his woods fill up with snow.
                                        
                              My little horse must think it queer
                              To stop without a farmhouse near
                                              . . .
                              The darkest evening of the year.

                                              . . .

                              The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
                              But I have promises to keep,
                              And miles to go before I sleep,
                              And miles to go before I sleep.
                                                                      (1-6, 8, 13-16)

          ~If you are omitting the first part of the first line you are quoting, indicate that omission with ellipsis                points:

                              . . . I call
                              That piece a wonder, now:  Fra Pandolf's hands
                              Worked busily aday, and there she stands. 
                              Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
                              "Fra Pandolf" by design, For never read
                              Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
                                              . . .
                              But to myself they turned (since none puts by
                              The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
                              And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
                              How such a glance came there. . . .



          ~If the last word of your quotation does not end the sentence, indicate that the sentence continues                beyond the word by adding three ellipsis points.  Also add a period directly after the word that ends              your quotation:

                              . . . never read
                              Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
                                               . . .
                              But to myself they turned (since none puts by
                              The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
                              And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
                              How such a glance came there. . . .


          Notice that although the last part of the quotation in the preceding example does not end its                        sentence, it is nevertheless a complete grammatical structure.  It would be inappropriate to write:

                              . . . never read
                              Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
                                              . . .
                              But to myself they turned (since none puts by
                              The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
                              And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst. . . .

          Ask me what? That last line is an unfinished grammatical structure, and it can't be left hanging like              that.

          Here is another example of a quotation that fails to complete its grammatical structure:

                              This becomes evident when she says, "Since then--'tis Centuries--and yet
                       Feels shorter than the Day" (21).

          What day? Here is a corrected version of that quotation:

                    This becomes evident when she says,

                              "Since then--'tis Centuries--and yet
                              Feels shorter than the Day
                              I first surmised the Horses' Heads
                              Were toward Eternity--
                                                                      (21-24)

          Notice that in the process of completing the grammatical structure of the quotation, I had to include               more lines, raising the number of quoted lines to four, which means that I have to use offset style               rather than in-text style.  Notice, too, that it is acceptable to use the same form of introductory set-up           for the quotation with the offset style that is used with the in-text style.


          ~If a line you are quoting extends past the right-hand margin, carry it to the next line, but indent it five            more spaces, to indicate that it is still part of the preceding line, not the beginning of a new line:

                    These old bones still work; they are not for you."  But how beautiful he looked,
                              gliding down
                    On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in the sea-light over the
                              precipice.  I tell you
                    That I was sorry to have disappointed him.  To be eaten by that beak and become part of
                              wings and those eyes
                    What a sublime end of one's body, what an enskyment; what a life after death.
                                                                                                                                                                     (8-11)
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