 Citing verse, which includes poetry or song lyrics and some plays, is very different than citing prose. This video explains how to cite verse within the text of your paper, according to the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook. The two main differences between citing prose and citing verse is that instead of giving page numbers, MLA requires you to give line numbers, and for plays, act and see numbers as well. Secondly, you have to reproduce the quotation exactly as it appears in the original source. This means keeping the line breaks the same as they appear in the original. However, if your instructor has given you different directions or has asked you to use page numbers, always follow their instructions. When you're quoting up to three lines of verse, you can place the lines within a paragraph and use quotation marks around the quote. Now you have to use a forward slash to indicate the break between lines as they appear in the original. Notice there is a space on either side of the forward slash. At the end of the quotation, in parentheses, you indicate the line numbers. In this case, line 29 to 31 of the poem. In your very first quotation, actually write the word line to indicate that you're using line numbers versus page numbers. After this, in all of the quotations that follow, you can simply write the numbers. You would quote Shakespeare or other plays written in verse the same way. If you have a play with act and see numbers, you would include them in parentheses as well. This quote is from act two, scene two of Hamlet and is line 378 and 379. Once your instructor requests it, do not use Roman numerals for act and see numbers. If you're quoting four or more lines of a poem or song or you're quoting dialogue from two or more characters, you need to use a block quote. Start the block quote on a new line and indent the entire quote one inch. Block quotes should be double spaced, but otherwise keeping the line breaks and spacing exactly as they appear in the poem. You don't use quotation marks around block quotes. Place the line numbers in parentheses after the punctuation at the end of the last line. When your quotation begins in the middle of a line, it should still be positioned where it is in the original. Even if the original poem uses very unusual spacing, reproduce it as accurately as possible in your paper. If you're quoting dialogue from two or more characters, you also use a block quote. Each character's name is written in all capital letters. If a character has multiple lines, all lines after the first one get indented an extra quarter inch. And the act, scene and line numbers are at the end of the quotation. When you're quoting poems or songs, occasionally you may leave out parts of or entire lines. How do you do this while still reproducing the verse exactly as it appears in the original? Here are some examples of what to do if you are leaving out words or lines and how to use an ellipsis. First, let's look at what you do for an in-text citation. In this example, we want to leave out the second line of the poem when we quote it. You have to indicate that you have left out a line by using an ellipsis. An ellipsis is a punctuation mark made up of three dots and literally means the omission of a word or words. Notice in parentheses, we are citing line one and three. In this example, we've left out the rest of this sentence, which was the beginning of line 20. When an ellipsis coincides with the end of a sentence, you use four dots, the three dots of the ellipsis mark plus the period. You also left out the remainder of this sentence. Here we've also used the ellipsis plus a period. Block quotes are similar. Here we have left out the last two lines of the sentence. We're again using an ellipsis followed by a period, then a space, and the line numbers in parentheses. In this next example, we have left out two entire lines. In a block quote, if you leave out one or more entire lines in the middle of a poetry quotation, you replace them with a whole line of periods, approximately the same length as a line of the poem. Thanks for watching. For more information on MLA, check out our other videos or visit the Munn Libraries webpage for our MLA style guide or to chat live with library staff.