Incorporate one line of poetry in your essay. Use quotation marks to separate your line of poetry from the rest of the text and make it stand out. Identify the number of the line you are making reference to and include that number in brackets after the quote. If you have decided to end your paragraph with the particular quote, then the full stop should come after the parenthesis. By looking at "The Waste Land" by T.S Eliot, an example might be "April is the cruellest month" (1).
Reference a section of poetry that is longer than one line. Mark the end of each line with a forward slash. Separate each line from the slash by a space. Make sure that you continue to use quotation marks to avoid any confusion, for example "April is the cruellest month / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing" (1-2).
Quote more than three lines of a poem in your essay. Start on a new line, about an inch from the margin on your left hand side. Make sure your poetry quote does not change in terms of format or layout. Keep it exactly the same as the original. Quotation marks are not necessary in this case, but it is still necessary that you parenthesize line numbers.
Introduce the lines that you are quoting before the quotation. If necessary, provide an analysis of the lines after the quotation. Argue for why you are quoting these lines in your essay and make sure they contribute to your overall thesis.