Is an MLA citation needed for a broad description of a poem's theme?

I'm trying to figure out whether I need to cite these poems or not.

“Out, Out—” has its morbid description of a young boy bleeding out and its underlying theme of death. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” has its pessimistic theme that nothing beautiful can stay beautiful.

I speak so generally that I

1. Have no idea if it's ethical or not to exclude citation

2. What I would cite were I to. Generally you cite poems by line numbers. If one were to cite a poem based on a description of its theme, doesn't that encompass the entire poem? This has more to do with the in-text citation part.

posted about 11 years ago

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