Citing Poems in Different Formatting Styles
Poems or their parts that are introduced in the text are considered direct quotations. Therefore, the requirements for citing them are a bit different from those for in-text citations. Nevertheless, they also vary depending on the formatting style that is applied while writing a particular paper.
MLA
- If the borrowed text is rather short, for example, one or two lines from the poem, you should use quote marksto introduce it;
- When you presenta long quotation, you should place it as a separate text that starts from the new line.It should havea 0.5-inch indent from the left margin. In the brackets (placed after the closing punctuation mark), you should introduce the last name of the author and the exact page number).
APA
- For brief quotes, the main requirement is to mention the writer’s surname, year of publication, and number of thepage;
- For long quotes, the requirements do not differ from those in MLA, except for the format of thein-text citation.
Harvard
- Short quotes are enclosed in inverted commas, and the in-text citation follows right away. The latter should be comprised ofthe author’s surname, the year of publication (without a comma between them), and the exact number of thepage, preceded by a comma and “p.”;
- Long quotes are formatted similar to MLA and APA, but the indent should be 1 cm, and the punctuation mark should be put at the very end.
