MLA normally places poem titles in quotation marks, while long independent poems such as epics can be treated like other independent works and italicized. The treatment depends on the work’s form and the style guide. Do not apply the short-poem rule blindly to book-length or otherwise independent poetic works.
ReviewedEvidence2 sourcesSectionWriting & Style
Quick answer
In MLA-style prose, put most poem titles in quotation marks; long independent works such as epic poems may be italicized.
Key details
Core Issuehow to style a poem title when it is mentioned in prose
Registeracademic, edited, and style-governed writing
RuleMLA normally places poem titles in quotation marks, while long independent poems such as epics can be treated like other independent works and italicized.
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
The treatment depends on the work’s form and the style guide. Do not apply the short-poem rule blindly to book-length or otherwise independent poetic works.
Further guidance
Recommendation
In MLA-style prose, put most poem titles in quotation marks; long independent works such as epic poems may be italicized.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
Academic-paper titles do not have one context-free quotation-mark rule. Purdue OWL says the title on your own MLA paper is centered without quotation marks or italics, while MLA Style Center guidance puts an unpublished student paper’s title in quotation marks when it is cited.
Article titles are normally placed in quotation marks in MLA-style prose because an article is a shorter work contained within a larger publication. Required house or citation styles can differ.
MLA treats a blog post as a short-form work contained within a larger site, so the blog-post title is normally placed in quotation marks. The title of the larger website or blog is styled separately.
In common academic style guidance, a chapter title is treated as a shorter work contained within a book and is placed in quotation marks. Title styling is style-guide dependent. Follow the required academic, publication, or house style if it specifies a different convention.
MLA guidance for conference presentations treats the paper title as the title of source and the conference as the container, with the paper title in quotation marks. Published proceedings should be handled according to the version consulted.
MLA styles an essay that forms part of a larger independent work in quotation marks. The rule is a publishing/style convention and can vary with context or another required style system.
MLA Style Center examples distinguish titled and untitled interviews. A genuine interview title is placed in quotation marks; an untitled interview is handled descriptively instead of being given an invented title.
MLA’s guidance for online works explicitly treats lecture titles as quoted titles. Untitled or informally described course lectures need separate handling rather than an invented formal title.
