Q. How do I cite a poem from my textbook MLA style?

Citing Poems

For your Works Cited page, when citing a poem from a book you'll need to include both the book publication information and the poem information. The examples below are for a print book. If the book is an eBook, it will also require the location of the eBook, generally the database provider and URL.  

Structure

Poem author. "Poem Title." Title of book, author(s) or editor(s), publisher, year of publication, page number(s).

Example

Burns, Robert. "Red, Red Rose." 100 Best-Loved Poems, edited by Philip Smith, Dover, 1995, p. 26.

Get More from MLA Handbook Plus

Great news! COM students can access the MLA Handbook Online, from the experts that wrote the rules! 

It provides sample papers and examples that you may be uncertain about, like if there is no author or more than one author. You can go straight to the poem examples or see more citation examples. 

The MLA Handbook Online can be accessed on or off campus 24/7. Just login with your COM account. 

For more basic MLA information you can try Cite MLA Style. 

Did you know? Our databases provide citations!

How you get them varies for each platform, but it's easy once you know how. Go to the Grab a Citation page in the Cite APA Style and Cite MLA Style guides to get step by step instructions with screen shots.