How to quote from poems:

Always cite the line number in parentheses after the quotation and depending on the length of the material being quoted, follow one of three formats. Here are examples of differing length quotations from the same section of a poem. (NB: examples 1) and 2) would be double-spaced if they were appearing in your paper. I single-spaced them here because of the short margins of this blog format. Example 3) preserves the correct double-spacing, since the quotation is single-spaced, but lacks the proper indentation of the quote since this blog format is quite frustratingly not allowing me to do that. If this is unclear, refer to the handout of this information from class, where you will see the forms better realized visually.)

The original section of (much longer) poem by Rainer Maria Rilke entitled, “Fourth Elegy:”

Who shows a child as he really is? Who sets him
In his constellation and puts the measuring-rod
Of distance in his hand? Who makes his death
Out of gray bread, which hardens—or leaves it there
Inside his round mouth, jagged as the core
Of a sweet apple? Murderers are easy
To understand. But this: that one can contain
Death, the whole of death, even before
Life has begun, can hold it to one’s heart
Gently, and not refuse to go on living,
Is inexpressible.

1) To quote a single line simply place your quote between quotation marks and run it into your sentence:

In Rilke’s “Fourth Elegy,” he poses the question, “Who shows a child as he really is?”(52) For Rilke, this question is the fundamental one for all art, since art is always trying to express the inexpressible.

2) For a quotation of only a few lines, follow the same format, but indicate where line breaks originally fell by using a slash:

In Rilke’s “Fourth Elegy” he poses the questions, “Who shows a child as he really is? Who sets him/ In his constellation and puts the measure-rod/ Of distance in his hand?” (52-54)

3) If you are quoting a larger chunk of a poem, you follow a different format. Here you indent, single-space your quotation, and do not use quotation marks:

The last stanza of Rilke’s “Fourth Elegy” sums up the philosophical and

aesthetic questions posed in the whole poem. Rilke expresses

astonishment at the paradoxes of life, primarily the concept that an

individual’s life already contains his death within it, in the very final

lines:

…But this: that one can contain
Death, the whole of death, even before
Life has begun, can hold it to one’s heart
Gently, and not refuse to go on living,
Is inexpressible. (59-62)


Remember to use ellipses (...) when you need to leave out part of a line. In the example above, line 59 originally ran:

To understand. But this: that one can contain

I picked the line up half-way through; I only needed to quote the last "sentence," so I started my quotation with ellipses to indicate that I had consciously left part of that line out.

(btw, NB = nota bene and means "note well." In other words, pay attention to this.)