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We mark up poetry differently than normal paragraph text. For Poetry, we apply the following DAISY Styles in Word:
By poetry, we mean any text where definition of poetic structure is required. The Poem (DAISY) style is an appropriate form of markup for song texts or lyrics.
The Poem (DAISY) style is used to wrap the entire poem, or fragment of a poem, in the <poem> tag and the lines of the poem in the <line> tags in XML.
The Poem (DAISY) style may also be used to mark up texts displaying elements of versification, metre and rhyme where the use of the Normal paragraph style is considered insufficiently accurate.
You must always apply the Poem (DAISY) style first, before you apply any of the Title, Author, or Byline styles.
The Poem - Title (DAISY) style is used to wrap the title of the poem in the <title> tag in XML.
Example:
Title of Poem [Heading 1 Style]
Title of Poem [Poem - Title (DAISY)]
The Poem - Byline (DAISY) styles can be used to wrap information about the creator of, or contributor to, a work, usually consisting of more than just an author's name. A byline may not contain a name at all.
The Author (DAISY) style can be used to wrap the author of the poem in the <author> tag in the XML. Only select the author's name and not other words, such as "by".
If the poem is in a foreign language, we can select the text and go to Tools > Language > Mark Selected Text As
and select the relevant language of the text.
If only select individual words are in other languages, do not apply any language formatting. Simply make a note of this and include this note when you are done and transfer the ticket to the Production Coordinator via RT.
Sometimes you will come across a poem that has more complex formatting that can not be translated to DAISY.
We can not retain this formatting for DAISY conversion.
The more common forms of complex formatting are:
In poetry the use of blank space on a page, between lines, words, or even letters, can be used to convey meaning. We can not retain blank spaces.
Lines, stanzas, or entire poems can use right justification to convey meaning. We can not retain right justification.
A Concrete poem is a poem where the words create a shape on the page that conveys a visual meaning. We can not retain the original shape of a concrete poem.
Example Original Poem:
In-Text Producer's Note Text:
BEGIN PRODUCER'S NOTE
In the section titled (5) the words after the first line originally appeared with no spaces and in the shape of a hammer. The poem has been reformatted to have spaces between the words, and without word breaks at the end of lines.
END PRODUCER'S NOTE
Sometimes you will come across images of text in poems. This is a big no-no in publishing and not accessible. See the section on Images of Text for more.
We transcribe all images of text and mark up with the appropriate NNELS styles. If it was a case of complex formatting, then use an In-Text Producer's Note.
Sometimes you will find the poet has used an image of a black bar to signify the censorship of a word of phase. In this can you can keep the image and add the Alt-Text "Thick black bar blocking out word/phrase."
In these cases include a Producer's Note at the beginning of the book.
Producer's Note [Heading Style 1]
This book originally appeared with special paragraph and line spaces that added to the meaning of the text. Due to the conversion process these design elements have been removed. For poems that originally appeared with more complex formatting there are in-text producer’s notes.
For more info please go to the Producer's Note page.
If there are individual poems within a collection that have complex formatting you may have to also include In-Text Producer's Notes to explain the original formatting and how it has changed with conversion.
Always us the Prodnote - Optional (DAISY)
for all poetry in-text producer's notes.
See In-Text Producer's Note for more information on usage and styling.
Below is an example from the book Whereas, by Layli Long Soldier. The title of the poem is 'He Sapa' that is broken down into sub-headings with each sub-section having special formatting in the original poem. The in-line Producer's Note is placed after the navigation title styled with Heading 1
, and before the title styled with Poem - Title
.
For more information on what elements can go within a poem's DAISY XML Structure please check out the DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines for Poetry.
In Word, if we tag the text below with the Poem (DAISY) style…
aujourd’hui le temps a métallisé la neige et le silence s’est réjoui pour mieux se confondre des traits blancs se précipitent au sol des montagnes s’accrochent sur les écorces des arbres et sur des bras épineux les verts disparaissent les bleus deviennent opalescents les contours des bruns et des roux s’estompent par moments un oiseau tire un trait noir dans cet espace accéléré
… then this is the output we will get in XML:
<poem> <linegroup> <line>aujourd’hui</line> <line>le temps a métallisé la neige</line> <line>et le silence s’est réjoui</line> <line>pour mieux se confondre</line> <line>des traits blancs se précipitent au sol </line> <line>des montagnes s’accrochent</line> <line>sur les écorces des arbres et sur</line> <line>des bras épineux</line> <line>les verts disparaissent</line> <line>les bleus deviennent opalescents</line> <line>les contours des bruns et des roux</line> <line>’estompent</line> <line>par moments</line> <line>un oiseau tire un trait noir</line> <line>dans cet espace accéléré</line> </linegroup> </poem>
In Word, if we tag the text below with the Poem (DAISY), the Poem - Title (DAISY), and the Author (DAISY) styles…
XXIX When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state,</line> And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate William Shakespeare
…then this is the output we will get in XML:
<poem> <title>XXIX</title> <linegroup> <line>When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes</line> <line>I all alone beweep my outcast state,</line> <line>And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,</line> <line>And look upon myself, and curse my fate</line> </linegroup> <author>William Shakespeare</author> </poem>
Q: I am editing a poetry book that uses Italian, French, and Latin. If I apply a language to one word, it changes the entire line or stanza. Should I just leave it as poetry style?
A: Unfortunately, identifying languages in Word doesn't translate well to DAISY XML and requires manual editing of language tags in the XML. You can just leave the Word version without language markup and use just the poetry style. Just make a note in the RT ticket that there are multiple languages.