About 1/3 of the Bible is Poetry. To cite a poetry section of the Bible in a paper, follow the instructions below.
The following is from the 9th Edition of Turabian.
25.2.2.2 POETRY AND DRAMA. Present a quotation of two or more lines from poetry as a block quotation. Begin each line of the poem on a new line, with punctuation at the ends of lines as in the original. For most papers, indent a block of poetry as you would a prose quotation; if a line is too long to fit on a single line, indent the runover farther than the rest of the quotation. (In a dissertation or other longer paper that includes many poetry quotations, center each left-aligned quotation on the page relative to the longest line.)
Whitman’s poem includes some memorable passages:
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this
soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same,
and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
If you are quoting a poem with an unusual alignment, reproduce the alignment of the original to the best of your ability.
This is what Herbert captured so beautifully:
Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the yeare onely lost to me?
Have I no bayes to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted?
All wasted?
If you quote two or more lines of dialogue from a dramatic work, set the quotation apart in a block quotation formatted as you would prose. Present each speaker’s name so that it is distinct from the dialogue, such as in all capital letters or in a different font. Begin each speech on a new line, and indent runovers farther than the rest of the quotation.
Then the play takes an unusual turn:
R. ROISTER DOISTER. Except I have her to my wife, I shall run mad.
M. MERYGREEKE. Nay, “unwise” perhaps, but I warrant you for “mad.”
Turabian, Kate L.. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Ninth Edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) (pp. 362-363). University of Chicago Press. Kindle Edition.
More on citing Poetry in Turabian Format
25.2.1.2: If you run two or more lines of poetry into your text, separate them with a slash (/), with a space before and after it. In most cases, however, use block quotations for poetry (see 25.2.2.2).
They reduce life to a simple proposition: “All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave; / In silence, ripen, fall, and cease.”
25.3.2.5 OMITTING A LINE OR MORE OF POETRY. For both the general and textual studies methods, show the omission of one or more complete lines of a poem quoted in a block quotation by a line of ellipsis points about as long as the line above it. T
he key passage reads as follows:
Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,
For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To all that wander in that perilous flood.
