How to reference poems in an essay

If you’re writing about poetry in an essay, knowing how to reference a poem is vital. But how does this work? In this post, we explain how to cite a poem in Harvard referencing, including both in the text and in the reference list.

Table of Contents Show

How to Cite a Poem in Harvard Referencing
Quoting Poetry
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Poems in a Harvard Reference List
Harvard Variations and Proofreading
On This Page: Poetry
Abbreviating Months
Formatting
Poetry Taken from an Edited Collection
Poetry Taken from a Website
In-Text Citation Rules for Poetry
Are poems italicized or quoted?
How do you Harvard reference a poem in an essay?
How do you write a reference for a poem?
Do you cite a poem by line or page?

How to Cite a Poem in Harvard Referencing

“Harvard referencing” is another name for parenthetical author–date referencing. This might sound technical, but all it means in practice is that you cite sources by giving the author’s name and a year of publication in brackets. We could cite a poem like this, for instance:

“The Fly” is notable for its unusual choice of subject (Blake, 1794).

Here, we’re citing “The Fly” by William Blake using its original publication date. We would then give full source details in the reference list.

Quoting Poetry

Quoting poetry can be a little different to quoting prose in two respects:

The kind of pinpoint citation you include.
How you present quoted poetry on the page.

In terms of pinpoint citations, you may want to use line numbers rather than page numbers, especially if the version you’re quoting includes them.

In terms of presentation, meanwhile, if you’re quoting a single line from a poem, you would quote it like you would any other source:

Donne (1633, line 3) writes, “It sucked me first, and now sucks thee.”

But for two or three lines, you will also need to use a forward slash to mark the line breaks. For example:

The poem begins “Mark but this flea, and mark in this,/How little that which thou deniest me is” (Donne, 1633, lines 1-2).

And for longer passages, you should set the poem out as it is in the source:

In the final stanza, Donne (1633, lines 18-22) writes:

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Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?

This helps to preserve the flow of the poem you are quoting.

Poems in a Harvard Reference List

The correct format for a poem in a Harvard reference list depends on where you found it. The three most common formats are as follows:

For a poem published as a standalone book, reference it as a book.
If the poem is part of a collection or anthology of work by various poets, reference it as a chapter from an edited book.
For a poem found online, reference it as a page from a website.

You can see examples of Harvard-style references for a few poems below:

Blake, W. (1794) “The Fly,” Poets.org [Online]. Available at https://poets.org/poem/fly (Accessed July 17, 2020).

Donne, J. (1633) “The Flea,” in Ferguson, M. W., Salter, M. J. and Stallworthy, J. (eds) The Norton Anthology of Poetry, New York, W.W. Norton (this edition 1996), p. 12.

Eliot, T. S. (1922) The Wasteland, London, Faber & Faber (this edition 2019).

Note that, where relevant, we’ve included the date of the edition (or the anthology in which a poem is reproduced) as well as the original date of publication. This is to help the reader find the version you’ve used.

Harvard Variations and Proofreading

For this post, we use a version of Harvard referencing based on the Open University guide [PDF]. However, the exact rules for citing a poem in Harvard referencing may depend on the version of the system you’re using, so make sure to check your style guide if you have one.

And if you want to be extra sure your written work is error free, including your referencing, it pays to have it proofread! Why not submit a free sample document today and find out how our expert editors can help you ensure clarity and consistency in your writing?

On This Page: Poetry

Abbreviating Months

In your works cited list, abbreviate months as follows:

January = Jan.
February = Feb.
March = Mar.
April = Apr.
May = May
June = June
July = July
August = Aug.
September = Sept.
October = Oct.
November = Nov.
December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper.

Formatting

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Poetry Taken from an Edited Collection

Author of Poem's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, edited by Editor's First Name Last Name, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication, pp. Page Numbers of the Poem.

Works Cited List Example

Donne, John. "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." The Broadview Introduction to Literature: Poetry, edited by Lisa Chalykoff, Neta Gordon, and Paul Lumsden, Broadview Press, 2013, pp. 48-49.

In-Text Citation Example

(Author of Poem's Last Name, line(s) Line Number(s))

Example: (Donne, lines 26-28)

Note: If your quotation contains more than one line from the poem use forward slashes (/) between each line of the poem. For line breaks that occur between stanzas, use a double forward slash (//).

Example

Using scientific imagery, Donne describes his connection to his wife, "As stiff compasses are two: /Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show / To move, but both, if th' other do" (lines 26-28).

Note: If citing more than 3 lines, follow the rules for a long quotation.

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 78-79, 121-122

Poetry Taken from a Website

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Poem." Title of Website, Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed Day Month Year site was visited.

Works Cited List Example

Keats, John. "On the Grasshopper and Cricket." Poetry Foundation, 2020, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53210/on-the-grasshopper-and-cricket. Accessed 24 March 2020.

In-Text Citation Example

(Author of Poem's Last Name, line(s) Line Number(s))

Example: (Keats, lines 10-12)

Note: If your quotation contains more than one line from the poem use forward slashes (/) between each line of the poem. For line breaks that occur between stanzas, use a double forward slash (//).

Example

Keats uses insects to represent the everlasting vitality of nature, "On a lone winter evening, when the frost / Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills / The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever" (lines 10-12).

Note: If citing more than 3 lines, follow the rules for a long quotation.

In-Text Citation Rules for Poetry

Information included in poem

In-Text Citation Example

Poem includes line numbers

(Author of Poem's Last Name, line(s) Line Number(s))

Example: (Blake, lines 6-9)

Poem doesn't include line numbers

(Author of Poem's Last Name)

Example: (Chaucer)

Poem includes divisions (acts, scenes, cantos,

books, parts) and line numbers

(Author of Poem's Last Name Division Number. Line Number(s))

Example: (Pope 5.645-646)

Note: 5.645-646 refers to canto 5, lines 645-646

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 121-122

Are poems italicized or quoted?

Generally, shorter works (poems, song titles, chapters) go in quotation marks, and longer works (movies, books, newspaper titles) are italicized. o Books are italicized, but a chapter inside a book is in quotation marks. o The name of a TV show is italicized, but a specific episode is in quotation marks.

How do you Harvard reference a poem in an essay?

You should refer to the name of the poem and the poet in the main body of your work, and include a citation to the anthology in which it appears. Example: Geoffrey Hill's The Guardians (Ferguson et al., 2005, p. 1832) was well received by critics in 1959.

How do you write a reference for a poem?

To cite a poem or short story, include the following details: the author's name, year published, title of the poem/story, title of the book where you located or read the poem (if applicable), book editor's first and last name (if applicable), publisher name, and page numbers. Author Surname, X. Y. (Year).

Do you cite a poem by line or page?

If the poem is longer than a page (or its online equivalent) and is published with explicit numbers marking lines or other parts (e.g., stanzas, cantos, books), cite the line numbers and other part numbers but not page numbers.