Good question. When citing two non-consecutive lines (or pages, chapters, etc.), MLA suggests separating the numbers with a comma, so you would write “2, 8” in your citation. In the quote itself, the two lines you’re quoting can be separated with an ellipsis to indicate the missing text in between, as explained in our article on quoting.

Thank you very much!

You can buy the latest edition of the MLA Handbook here, or check out their blog “MLA Style Center” here.

You’re right that we don’t provide full Works Cited lists in our articles; that’s for the sake of keeping them concise and because they’re intended as accessible web articles rather than formal academic texts. You can assume that all our articles about MLA style are drawing on information from the MLA Handbook and the MLA Style Center.

Hi Derek,

Generally, if you’re just summarizing a poem in a sentence you don’t need to cite it, since you’re not referring to specific parts of the poem. But do include citations for any quotes from the poem or paraphrases of specific parts of it.

Hi Saleh,

With a quote of that length, you’d present it as a block quotation, as shown in the article here. Then the author’s name and line number would appear in parentheses at the end of the last line, after any closing punctuation. So for example:

What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? (Blake, lines 20–24)

Hello, I have a question!
If I quote a bulk of a poem, 9 lines to be specific where I put the author’s name and the line number?
Thanks

Hi Katy,

If you need to cite a poem without referring to a specific line, your in-text citation should just be the author’s last name, i.e. “(Lawrence)”

Hope that helps!