In the seventh edition of the “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers,” the Modern Language Association provides specific guidance for short citations of poetry. When quoting three lines of verse or fewer, use quotation marks and separate lines with spaced slashes, then include the author’s name and line numbers in parentheses before the final punctuation: “I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree” (Kilmer 1-2). The 16th edition of the “Chicago Manual of Style” uses the same format for short quotations, but suggests only citing one or two lines in quotation marks. Chicago uses a footnote or endnote after the closing punctuation and quotation mark to cite bibliographical information and line numbers.
MLA and Chicago styles both strive to preserve poetry’s original formatting as closely as possible by separating longer quotations from the surrounding text. In MLA format, quotations begin on a new line and are indented one inch from the body of the essay or article. MLA style recommends double-spacing lines of verse in a paper. It doesn’t place quotation marks around these block quotations, but rather inserts a space and then a parenthetical citation with the author’s name and line numbers after the final line’s punctuation. No punctuation should appear after the closed parenthesis.
Chicago style recommends visually centering a block quotation of poetry between the right and left margins while maintaining the poem’s original alignment. This style single-spaces lines of verse unless the original formatting differs, and it suggests a half-line to full-line space between stanzas. Like MLA style, Chicago style doesn’t place quotation marks around block quotations. Chicago generally uses a footnote or endnote after the final line’s punctuation, but it also gives writers the option to reduce notes by using parenthetical citations such as this one: (Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale,” stanza 6). No period should follow the parenthetical citation.
Some poems have lines that are too long to fit on one manuscript line. These “runover lines” have to be distinguished from the lines that follow them. Chicago style indents runover lines one em -- a space the width of the base of a capital letter M -- from the line above. MLA style indents runover lines a quarter inch from the poem’s left edge.