This recipe adds support for typesetting simple verse: verse.php Δ replicates most of the functionality provided in the LATEX verse package. It also supports multi-part poems and poem attribution (authorship).
The following is an introductory example, with a title and 2 indented lines Each line starts with a “+” to denote that the text is verse. A “+!” denotes the poem title and “++” denoted a line indented by one tab stop:
+! A Limerick
+There was an old party of Lyme
+Who married three wives at one time.
++ When asked: 'Why the third?'
++ He replied: 'One's absurd,
+And bigamy, sir, is a crime.'
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- A Limerick
- There was an old party of Lyme
- Who married three wives at one time.
- When asked: ‘Why the third?’
- He replied: ‘One’s absurd,
- And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
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Additional “+” markup increases the level of indentation:
+!The Young Lady of Ryde
+There was a young lady of Ryde
+Who ate some apples and died.
++The apples fermented
+++Inside the lamented
+And made cider inside her inside.
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- The Young Lady of Ryde
- There was a young lady of Ryde
- Who ate some apples and died.
- The apples fermented
- Inside the lamented
- And made cider inside her inside.
|
The next example shows a poem with an author name denoted by “+|”, with a string after the title to denote display line length.
+!Fleas | What a funny thing is a flea
+What a funny thing is a flea.
+You can't tell a he from a she.
+But he can. And she can.
+Whoopee!
+|Anonymous
|
- Fleas
- What a funny thing is a flea.
- You can’t tell a he from a she.
- But he can. And she can.
- Whoopee!
- Anonymous
|
The next example shows alternating indented lines denoted by “||” in the title line, again with a display line length:
+! Love's Lost || But now my love is dead
+I used to love my garden
+But now my love is dead
+For I found a bachelor's button
+In black-eyed Susan's bed.
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- Love’s Lost
- I used to love my garden
- But now my love is dead
- For I found a bachelor’s button
- In black-eyed Susan’s bed.
|
The next example adds a “split” line denoted by a “|” at the split:
+!Mathematics
+In mathematics he was greater
+Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
+For he, by geometric scale,
+Could take the size of pots of ale;
+Resolve, by sines | and tangents straight,
+If bread or butter wanted weight;
+And wisely tell what hour o' the day
+The clock does strike, by Algebra.
+|Samuel Butler (1612-1680)
|
- Mathematics
- In mathematics he was greater
- Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
- For he, by geometric scale,
- Could take the size of pots of ale;
- Resolve, by sines
- Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
- If bread or butter wanted weight;
- And wisely tell what hour o’ the day
- The clock does strike, by Algebra.
- Samuel Butler (1612–1680)
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It is also possible to force a line break at the point denoted by “||”:
+!In the Beginning
+Then God created Newton,
+And objects at rest tended to remain at rest,
+And objects in motion tended to remain in motion,
+And energy was conserved and momentum was conserved ||and matter was
conserved
+And God saw that it was conservative.
+|Possibly from ';Analog;', c. 1950
|
- In the Beginning
- Then God created Newton,
- And objects at rest tended to remain at rest,
- And objects in motion tended to remain in motion,
- And energy was conserved and momentum was conserved
and matter was conserved
- And God saw that it was conservative.
- Possibly from Analog, c. 1950
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The final example is a song with a title, multiple stanzas denoted by a blank line between stanzas, alternate line indentation, and verse marginal notes denoted by “+{…}” markup:
+! Clementine || In a cavern, in a canyon,
+{1.} In a cavern, in a canyon,
+Excavating for a mine,
+Lived a miner, forty-niner,
+And his daughter, Clementine.
+{';chorus;'} Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
+Oh my darling Clementine.
+Thou art lost and gone forever,
+Oh my darling Clementine.
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- Clementine
- 1.
- In a cavern, in a canyon,
- Excavating for a mine,
- Lived a miner, forty-niner,
- And his daughter, Clementine.
- chorus
- Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
- Oh my darling Clementine.
- Thou art lost and gone forever,
- Oh my darling Clementine.
|
Putting the pieces together:
- Four Seasons In One Day
- Four seasons in one day
- Lying in the depths of your imagination
- Worlds above and worlds below
- The sun shines on the black clouds
- Hanging over the domain
- Even when you’re feeling warm
- The temperature could drop away
- Like four seasons in one day
- Smiling as the shit comes down
- You can tell a man from what he has to say
- Everything gets turned around
- And I will risk my neck again, again
- You can take me where you will
- Up the creek and through the mill
- Like all the things you can’t explain
- Four seasons in one day
- Blood dries up
- Like rain, like rain
- Fills my cup
- Like four seasons in one day
- It doesn’t pay to make predictions
- Sleeping on an unmade bed
- Finding out wherever there is comfort
- There is pain
- Only one step away
- Like four seasons in one day
- Blood dries up
- Like rain, like rain
- Fills my cup
- Like four seasons in one day
- Lyrics by Neil Finn and Tim Finn
The verse package’s concept of an “indentation pattern” for verse lines is currently not supported. The package also supports verse line numbers but currently we don’t have a way to activate this from wiki markup. The Lady of Shalott is an example of a multi-part poem.
Contributor: John Rankin, Wednesday, 3 November 2010, revised Monday, 13 December 2010.
