If you are quoting three or fewer lines of poetry, run the lines into the text. (Set a poetry quotation off from the text as a block quotation when it is four or more lines long.) To show that a line has been elided from a run-in poetry quotation, substitute an ellipsis for the omitted line, using forward slashes to indicate line breaks in the poem.

Describing the experience of descending into a dark ocean outfitted in deep-sea diving gear, Adrienne Rich writes that while “my mask is powerful / … / the sea is not a question of power.” 

Work Cited

Rich, Adrienne. “Diving into the Wreck.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poem/diving-wreck. Accessed 29 July 2021.

For further guidance on eliding text from a poetry quotation, see our post on when to use two sets of ellipses with a slash between them.