Virgules

In citing poetry, including drama in poetic form, you must show where the line breaks with the virgule or forward slash mark, e.g. in the citation of the first two lines of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" you show where the line breaks: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume [. . .]" (1-2).

Virgules are required in citing poetry because the place where a poet breaks the line is often significant. In citing it in your own line of text, that line break disappears unless you show it with the virgule.

Notice that you need a space before and after the virgule. Notice also that you don’t put a virgule at the end of a quotation. The second line cited above is the full line of Whitman's text, but a virgule isn't placed after "assume."