Level 4 Verse Examples

Examples are from Documenting the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Compiled by Natasha Smith

• All verse, even poems without separate stanzas or verse paragraphs, should be contained within a line group element <lg>. This will assist with automated processing and retrieval.

  Millie-Christine, 1851-1912
  The History of the Carolina Twins: Told in "Their Own Peculiar Way" By "One of Them"
  [Buffalo]: Buffalo Courier Printing House, [18--?].
  (see: the rendered HTML or the entire XML file)

  	
  	<lg type="stanza">
              <l>I'm happy, quite, <sic corr="because">beeause</sic> I'm good;</l>
              <l>I love my Savior and my God.</l>
              <l>I love all things that God has done,</l>
              <l>Whether I'm created <hi rend="italics">two</hi> or <hi rend="italics">one.</hi></l>
           </lg>
  

  FROM: George Moses Horton, 1798?-ca. 1880
  The Poetical Works of George M. Horton: The Colored Bard of North Carolina: To Which is Prefixed the Life
  of the Author, Written by Himself.
  Hillsborough [N.C.]: Printed by D. Heartt, 1845.
  (see: the rendered HTML or the entire XML file)

  	<lg type="stanza">
              <l>Friendship, thou balm for ev'ry ill, </l>
              <l>I must aspire to thee; </l>
              <l>Whose breezes bid the heart be still, </l>
              <l>And render sweet the patient's pill, </l>
              <l>And set the pris'ner free. </l>
  	</lg>
  

• It is common to see informal divisions within poems, noted by a string of asterisks or periods. These should be encoded as <milestone>s with attribute values of UNIT="typography"and N= indicating the character used and its occurrence, <milestone unit="typography" N="******">.

  FROM: Paul Hamilton Hayne, 1830-1886
  Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne.
  Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1882.
  (see: the rendered HTML or the entire XML file)

  	<lg type="stanza">
              <l>O'er the dim billows thundering, peals a boom</l>
              <l>Of the deep gun that bursteth as a knell,</l>
              <l>When the brave tender to the brave farewell—</l>
              <l>And strong arms bear a comrade to the tomb.</l>
            </lg>
  
            <milestone n=". . . . . " unit="typography"/>

• It is strongly recommended that indentation is recorded using the REND attribute on the <l> element.

  FROM: Lewis Carroll,
  The Hunting of the Snark, an Agony in Eight Fits
  New York: Macmillan and Co., 1891.
  (example provided by the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center)

  	<lg type="stanza">
  	  <l>"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,</l>
  	  <l rend="indent">As he landed his crew with care;</l>
  	  <l>Supporting each man on the top of the tide</l>
  	  <l rend="indent">By a finger entwined in his hair.</l>
  	</lg>
  
  	<pb n="46" />
  
  	<lg type="stanza">
  	  <l>"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:</l>
  	  <l rend="indent">That alone should encourage the crew.</l>
    	  <l>Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:</l>
  	  <l rend="indent">What I tell you three times is true."</l>
  	</lg> 
  

  ... may be rendered as such depending upon how the document is styled upon delivery:

  "Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,

  As he landed his crew with care;

  Supporting each man on the top of the tide

  By a finger entwined in his hair.

  ---

  --Page 46--

  "Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:

  That alone should encourage the crew.

  Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:

  What I tell you three times is true."