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Author
Topic: Quoting Poetry
Star Collective
Pancake
posted 03-12-2003 09:29:11 PM
Ok, I'm working on a paper for my Comp II class and I'm contrasting two different poems. Anyone know how you're supposed to quote consecutive lines in the same poem? I've been doing "Blah blah blah" (page number) "blah blah blah" (page number). Its supposed to be in M.L.A. format and I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly. I would ask the teacher but it is due first thing tomorrow morning.

Can someone help me please?

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. - Ursula K. LeGuin ~ The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Bloodcookie
Pancake
posted 03-12-2003 09:41:48 PM
I believe you indent the lines on both sides, with the standard parenthetical citation at the end.

""...destructive analysis of the familiar is the only method of approach to an understanding of fundamentally different modes of expression." -Edward Sapir, Language
Star Collective
Pancake
posted 03-12-2003 09:43:24 PM
quote:
Star Collective had this to say about Knight Rider:
Ok, I'm working on a paper for my Comp II class and I'm contrasting two different poems. Anyone know how you're supposed to quote consecutive lines in the same poem? I've been doing "Blah blah blah" (page number) "blah blah blah" (page number). Its supposed to be in M.L.A. format and I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly. I would ask the teacher but it is due first thing tomorrow morning.

Can someone help me please?


Edit: I looked through my M.L.A. handbook and there is nothing /cry

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. - Ursula K. LeGuin ~ The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Star Collective
Pancake
posted 03-12-2003 09:44:42 PM
quote:
Bloodcookie had this to say about (_|_):
I believe you indent the lines on both sides, with the standard parenthetical citation at the end.

Thanks!

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. - Ursula K. LeGuin ~ The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Iulius Kaesar
Pancake
posted 03-12-2003 10:00:49 PM
Okay so I was about to get all righteous and point you to mla.org, but they're not giving up the goods till you purchase their book.

<soapbox>
See, that's what's wrong with America. I can (so they tell me) find as many pictures of nudie women as I want, but should I want to format my document the way a group of yahoos calling themselves the "Modern Language Association" does then nooooo I've got pony up $14.99 for the privledge. And that's just for the soft cover. You know what they need though? A teaser page. First 10 citation rules, and maybe an .mpg of somebody writing in proper style. Rowr.

Oh wait, they do. Sans .mpg's I'm afraid.
</soapbox>

Anyway, the assininely correct thing to do would be to cite the page number after every quotation, and my guess whould be that your teacher would ask you to do so. However there's probably a rule allowing a single-page work to go page numberless if it's included in the bibliography.

Star Collective
Pancake
posted 03-12-2003 10:09:47 PM
quote:
Verily, Iulius Kæsar doth proclaim:
Okay so I was about to get all righteous and point you to mla.org, but they're not giving up the goods till you purchase their book.

<soapbox>
See, that's what's wrong with America. I can (so they tell me) find as many pictures of nudie women as I want, but should I want to format my document the way a group of yahoos calling themselves the "Modern Language Association" does then nooooo I've got pony up $14.99 for the privledge. And that's just for the soft cover. You know what they need though? A teaser page. First 10 citation rules, and maybe an .mpg of somebody writing in proper style. Rowr.

Oh wait, they do. Sans .mpg's I'm afraid.
</soapbox>

Anyway, the assininely correct thing to do would be to cite the page number after every quotation, and my guess whould be that your teacher would ask you to do so. However there's probably a rule allowing a single-page work to go page numberless if it's included in the bibliography.


Its a three-page so I think I'm just gonna go ahead and put the citations after every one. But thanks!

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. - Ursula K. LeGuin ~ The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Bloodsage
Heart Attack
posted 03-12-2003 10:21:03 PM
It's in the MLA Handbook. If I was at home, I'd show you the reference.

Also depends on how you mean "consecutive." If you are talking about quoting several lines of poetry, you don't automatically indent (I forget the cutoff for number of lines). If you are talking about "blah blah poetry quotation blah blah poetry quotation," then you use the full parenthetical citation on the first, and simply the page number on the second.

Come to think, though, I think you can indent two consecutive lines.

Eh.

How can your teacher require MLA format if you don't have the handbook?

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

--Satan, quoted by John Milton

Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael
I posted in a title changing thread.
posted 03-12-2003 10:25:07 PM
4 or more lines gets center-aligned. Doesn't matter if it's five lines or fifty lines. Though in all honesty, you may want to just enclose a copy of the poem after your Works Cited, and quote the valid lines for the point you're making at the moment in the body of the paper.

The reason why you don't want to quote an entire multi-page poem (like "The Raven" for instance, or "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") all at once is that it detracts from the point you're making if you quote the whole bloody thing at once.

So I'd say enclose a copy of the poem(s) you're analyzing after the Works Cited page (don't forget to cite the poems correctly!), and quote the pertinent lines in the body for each given point you make.

Lyinar's sweetie and don't you forget it!*
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. -Roy Batty
*Also Lyinar's attack panda

sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me

Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael
I posted in a title changing thread.
posted 03-12-2003 10:29:19 PM
quote:
T. E. Bloodsage had this to say about (_|_):
It's in the MLA Handbook. If I was at home, I'd show you the reference.

Also depends on how you mean "consecutive." If you are talking about quoting several lines of poetry, you don't automatically indent (I forget the cutoff for number of lines). If you are talking about "blah blah poetry quotation blah blah poetry quotation," then you use the full parenthetical citation on the first, and simply the page number on the second.

Come to think, though, I think you can indent two consecutive lines.

Eh.

How can your teacher require MLA format if you don't have the handbook?


In theory, public schools (at high school level) are supposed to keep copies handy in the Library, but some people walk off with them and never return 'em.

Ideally, though, people intending to go to college will just go ahead and buy a copy of the book from online or the bookstore or wherever. MLA: Learn to love it. You will, as I'm sure Sage will agree with me, use it forever and ever. Any major paper will have to be written in MLA. Better to just buy the bloody thing and get it over with.

Lyinar's sweetie and don't you forget it!*
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. -Roy Batty
*Also Lyinar's attack panda

sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me

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