Having a character quote an entire stanza of a poem
I am working on a long form fiction item. In this one of the characters will quote the first stanza from a poem. Normally with speech, one opens quotes, adds the text, and closes quotes. However I do not wish to run the lines of the poem on to each other as I would like the reader to be able to appreciate the poem too. Thus far this has never been a problem as when citing poems; I format them as the author has, as inserts.
Doing that would have every line opening with quotes (but not closing) which I feel would look silly but not having the new paragraph/line quotes would break standard... ?
How can I present the poem being quoted and make it clear that it is the character speaking without making the poem hard to read in way that a publisher would find acceptable and a reader would not find confusing?
TL;DR - I want a character to quote a poem in speech and have the poem still read as such, while maintaining standard dialogue formatting.
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1 answer
Format it the same way, with blockquote indents, and if you can add a little dialogue before and after, you don't have to worry about weird quote mark placement.
Bilbo stood and cleared his throat.
"I have a new poem for you all," he announced. "It goes thus:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
And that, of course, is for our dear Estel." The hobbit bowed in the direction of the ranger, who lifted his pipe in acknowledgement of the song.
If it's not too long you can also put the poem in italics, but I wouldn't do that for more than a dozen lines.
If you can't add extra dialogue, then just open and close the quotes at the beginning and end of the poem (in this example, "All" and "king").
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