English 199

Workshop: Writing about Poetry

Quoting Poetry

1. One or two lines. When you quote one or two lines from a poem, a song, or a verse play, run the lines into your own text and enclose them in quotation marks. If you use two lines, separate them with a slash (/) surrounded by space.

In "To His Coy Mistress," Marvell pays his mistress an ambiguous compliment when he tells her "My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow" (lines 11-12). In addition to its connotations of fecundity and nourishment, the word "vegetable," which appears well below human and animal existence on the Great Chain of Being, implies an earthy, sensual love considerably below the level of human reason.

Note that the example here places line numbers instead of page numbers in parentheses. Also, the quotation is followed by an explanation that emphasizes the connotations of specific words.

2. Three or more lines. Quotations of three lines or more must be indented 10 spaces. As with other block quotations, no quotation marks are used and the quoted material, like the rest of the paper, should be double spaced.

Marvell contrasts the rich, flourishing, timeless quality of his ideal love with the constraints of the lovers' time-bound universe:

Thy beauty shall no more be found,

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long-preserved virginity,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The grave's a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace. (lines 25-28; 31-32)

The repeated negation ("no more," "Nor") of the warmth and moisture of youth and beauty is here matched by the images of cold, dry death implied by "marble vault." In addition, the ironic understatement of the final couplet underscores the lover's point that physical love is impossible after death, when only "worms" can touch his mistress's body.

If one or more lines of poetry are omitted, a full line of ellipses replaces the missing lines, as shown above.

3. Bibliographic Form.

a. A single poem from the anthology.

Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 9 th ed. New York: Longman, 2005. 1208-1209.

b. Two or more poems from the anthology.

Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." Kennedy and Gioia 1208-1209.

Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9 th ed. New York: Longman, 2005.

Merrill, James. "Kite Poem." Kennedy and Gioia 1209.