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Poetry

We mark up poetry differently than normal paragraph text. For Poetry, we apply the following DAISY Styles in Word:

  • Poem (DAISY)
  • Poem - Title (DAISY)
  • Poem - Byline (DAISY)
  • Author (DAISY)

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.

Styles

Poem (DAISY)

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.

Poem - Title (DAISY)

The Poem - Title (DAISY) style is used to wrap the title of the poem in the <title> tag in XML.

Sometimes you will have a book of poetry that uses titles as a point of navigation (similar to the chapters of a book.) In these cases you can markup the titles as a Heading Style and then copy the Title directly below the Heading Style and apply Poem - Title (DAISY). This will mean there will be two titles for each poem. Only do this if the book is set up to have the titles work similar to chapter navigation.

Example:

Title of Poem [Heading 1 Style]

Title of Poem [Poem - Title (DAISY)]

Poem - Byline (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.

Author (DAISY)

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".

Sometimes certain styles can be retained within the poem, such as italics. If you are working with a poem with such formatting please contact us to advise how edit.
Some poems will end a line mid-sentence, or even mid-word. In this case keep the formatting as is. The reader will keep pace with the poem.

Poems in a foreign language

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.

Complex Formatting and Producer's Notes

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.

Common Types of Complex Formatting

The more common forms of complex formatting are spacing, line justification, and concrete poetry.

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.

If you have a concrete poem, simply keep the line break/word breaks as they originally appear with left justification and insert an In-Text Producer's Note explaining the original shape of the poem. See below for more on when and how to use these notes for poetry.

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

Producer's Note

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.

You can update the example above to reflect the formatting of the collection you are working on.

For more info please go to the Producer's Note page.

In-Text Producers Notes

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.

Use the In-text Producer's Notes sparingly. If you find you are repeating the same information in your In-Text notes for multiple poems then only include it in the main Producer's Note at the beginning of the book. This will avoid repetition.
All In-text Producer's Notes must appear before the poem title. Otherwise it will not be compatible with DAISY conversion.

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.

Example of An In-Line Producer's Note

Original Poem Sections

Example Word and XML markup

Example 1

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>

Example 2

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&A

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.

public/nnels/etext/poetry.1587741470.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/04/24 08:17 by rachel.osolen