Quoting someone within your poem

[ellajam]

If you quote someone else's work in your poem do you need to credit them? Does it matter whether or not you think people should recognize the quote? Can it be considered plagiarism if you don't?

Example: Sylvia by JG

I also think if you're going to quote in the body of the poem you might want to footnote the credit.

You do not need the footnote. If a reader doesn't know it's Plath, there would no hope for them anyway. The quoted response is enough.

[ChristopherSea]

It's a good question and probably not a matter of recognizing the source or not. Unquoted lines from another author's poem within the body of your own may appear to be plagiarism. In quotes, we might assume it is another's, but that is not giving credit. In scientific writing, it would not be acceptable to leave it uncited. Footnoting might be the best practice, but could effect the poetry aesthetics*. I would probably put the entire quote and author credit in a preface or afterword, if it were my poem.

[billy]

we as the reader can't assume anything, we have no idea if a poet is trying to pass another poet's words as their own. if you don't attribute a passage from another poets work to them when you write a poem, you will be deemed to be plagiarizing said poet. it isn't about people recognizing their quotes or not, it's about making it clear it's another poets work and not your own. it's okay if it's a homage poem that rewrites the work of say shakespeare or someone else but if we use their words we must attribute. two people have already been banned for not doing so. so just to be clear, bans all round for plagiarism. we're fine if you quote and attribute, we're not fine if you quote and do not attribute. /admin

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Footnote:
Tell me what you see in it:
The pine tree like a Rorschach-blot
black against the orange light:

From the poem, Black Pine Tree In An Orange Light
by Sylvia Plath

the above is a perfect example of attributing ...thank you to the author:J:

[ChristopherSea]

we as the reader can't assume anything, we have no idea if a poet is trying to pass another poet's words as their own. if you don't attribute a passage from another poets work to them when you write a poem, you will be deemed to be plagiarizing said poet. it isn't about people recognizing their quotes or not, it's about making it clear it's another poets work and not your own. it's okay if it's a homage poem that rewrites the work of say shakespeare or someone else but if we use their words we must attribute. two people have already been banned for not doing so. so just to be clear, bans all round for plagiarism. we're fine if you quote and attribute, we're not fine if you quote and do not attribute. /admin

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Footnote:
Tell me what you see in it:
The pine tree like a Rorschach-blot
black against the orange light:

From the poem, Black Pine Tree In An Orange Light
by Sylvia Plath

the above is a perfect example of attributing ...thank you to the author:J:

This is how it should be for any direct quote and it is self-evident. Scientific writing goes well beyond citing direct quotes. We have to reference all results, observations or theories reported in our publications that are not our own. Even if they are, but someone else made the observation first, we still have to cite their papers. The last review I wrote had 148 references and often they used multiple times.

[billy]

thankfully we're just a poetry site and not a university of science

[Carousal]

As a matter of course I always acknowledge the poet if I use a line from their poetry, it’s a matter of courtesy but also if someone recognises the line it could be embarrassing.
The one exception was this stanza in a poem that was borderline.

Oh mother Church of England fair
In morning mass and evening prayer
Poets take up their pens and quills
And write of blue remembered hills
Ask is there honey still for tea
In Avalon and Linden Lea

‘Is there honey still for tea’ is the last line from Rupert Brooke’s poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester: but as I had referred to poets on the third line I didn’t think it was necessary to acknowledge the line again.