Explanation I use in comments on student papers:
When quoting just 1-3 lines of poetry, do not use the inset quote form but instead put quote marks around the verse and use the slash “/” with a space on either side to indicate the line divisions. For example, this is a short quote from a poem by T. S. Eliot: “Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky.”
When quoting a larger passage of poetry, use the inset quote form (no quote marks, indented, set the way it appears in the original). For example, here is the same poem from Eliot:
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question . . .
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
Note that the syntax of your own sentence introducing the quote must join up sensibly with that of the poetry you are quoting. So the following is syntactical:
Eliot once suggested that “you and I” go out “When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table.”
