Italicize the titles of long poems. An example of an italicized poem title would be The Odyssey because it is a book-length poem. If your word processor program does not have an italics option or you are writing by hand, underline long poem titles.
Place a short poem title in quotation marks. An example would be "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. The best test of length for determining a short poem title is whether the poem appears in a larger volume of works.
Leave the poem's title not italicized if it is within the title of another work. For instance, Preface to the Odyssey.