MLA - Plays & Poetry

Citations of plays and poetry are more precise in terms of acts, scenes, lines, verses, and so on.
E.g. (3.2 7-13) Act III, scene 2, lines 7- 13

You can abbreviate the names of the famous literary works, e.g. Ham. (Hamlet), Mac. (Macbeth), FQ (Faerie Queene).

E.g. use the word ‘lines’ the fist time you cite in-text (lines 2-5) and thereafter use only numbers (4-6).

In-text

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition … (3.2 7-13).

In “To His Coy Mistress”, Marvell declares “And yonder all before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity” (lines 23-4).

Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is rich and evocative in detail:
But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity. (lines 21-24)

Marvell suggest that the character can be seen in two roles (“To His Coy Mistress” 3-11)

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Barbara Mowat and Peter Werstine. Washing Square-Pocket: New York, 1992. Print.

Marvell, Andrew. “To His Coy Mistress.” Ed. Xavier J. Kennedy and Diane Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2005. 1208-209. Print.