Sports Poetry Assignment - from Sports in Literature  (using quotations)  
1. For quotations of three lines or less, use slashes and line numbers (not page numbers).

In "Jump Shot," basketball is linked to art, specifically when describing the beauty and grace of the

basketball player's form: "Hands like stars, spread to suspend / The ball from five, and only

five, / Magic fingerprints" (Peck, lines 3-5).  The words "stars" and "magic" suggest the jump shot is a

wonderful combination of form and motion.

2. For quotations longer than three lines, use a block format. If a poem has an unusual format, represent it as accurately as possible, as this example from "400-meter Freestyle" (pg 54) shows.

At the end of the race, the swimmer must rely on his mental toughness to drive his body, tired and crying for oxygen, to the finish.  The lack of punctuation mirrors this final, continuous surge:

           he drives along on little sips carefully expended
           b
         u
           t
           that plum red heart pumps hard cries hurt . . . . (Kumin, lines 53-57)

 For "In the Pocket," follow the same idea. 

3. If just quoting from only two nonconsecutive lines from "400-meter Freestyle,"consider this.

            At the end of the race, the swimmer must rely on his mental toughness to drive his body, tired and

            crying for oxygen, to the finish.  The lack of punctuation mirrors this final, continuous drive:

            "that plum red heart pumps hard cries hurt . . .  / and makes its final surge" (Kumin, lines 57, 61).