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Special use of Ellipses
A special form of ellipses is used to indicate that a line or number
of lines have been omitted within the body of a poem.
When quoting poetry, indicate a deleted line or lines by typing a row
of spaced periods approximately the length of a complete line in the quoted
poem:
- ORIGINAL
If in some smothering dreams you too could
pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
(Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est," lines 17-28)
- QUOTATION OMITTING A LINE OR MORE IN THE
BODY OF THE POEM
Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"
is uncompromising in its conclusion:
If in some smothering dreams you too could
pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. (17-19, 26-28)
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A word about fairness when omitting words in a source quotation:
mind that your omissions do not alter the sense of the original.
The reason for using ellipsis marks is to reduce a quotation to
the salient sentences or phrases that are of interest or relevance
to your discussion, or to accommodate the quotation to the logic
and grammar of your sentence. Use of ellipses should not result
in a distortion of the original quotation.
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