This was was cloned from bug 15683 as part of operation convergence.
Originally filed: 2012-01-24 00:25:00 +0000

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 #0   contributor@whatwg.org                          2012-01-24 00:25:45 +0000 
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Specification: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html
Multipage: http://www.whatwg.org/C#top
Complete: http://www.whatwg.org/c#top

Comment:
It is very tedious and almost impossible to properly display poetry that is
typographically metered, specially in Arabic since it needs strict
typographical alignments. The fact that Arabic readers almost always come
across poetry on daily bases as they brows the net makes this a requirement.
That would also almost be true for most languages which use poetic proverbs in
articles and writings to convey ideas and thoughts.
I can think of two solutions at this time to properly display this:
1. An HTML tag with attribute <poetry stanza="value">. From there, a CSS3
selector can easily refine the presentation form of the piece.
2. Basically the tedious way of using <p> and/or <table> and/or <li> and/or
<span> etc then applying a presentation formatting on selectors. Not an
eloquent way at all to say the least.

By introducing the new <poetry> tag and starting with "stanza" attribute, I am
sure that the tag will grow interest for further refinement and more
attributes will be introduced for the tag to be an efficient way of
representing that kind of literature in any kind of language.

to contact: (ismail) [at] (tabtabai) (dot) (org)

Posted from: 219.120.138.253
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 #1   Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis                           2012-01-24 07:27:11 +0000 
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(In reply to comment #0)
> It is very tedious and almost impossible to properly display poetry that is
> typographically metered, specially in Arabic since it needs strict
> typographical alignments.

Can you provide an example? (You appear to be the originator of the phrase "typographically metered".)

> The fact that Arabic readers almost always come
> across poetry on daily bases as they brows the net makes this a requirement.
> That would also almost be true for most languages which use poetic proverbs in
> articles and writings to convey ideas and thoughts.
> I can think of two solutions at this time to properly display this:
> 1. An HTML tag with attribute <poetry stanza="value">. From there, a CSS3
> selector can easily refine the presentation form of the piece.
> 2. Basically the tedious way of using <p> and/or <table> and/or <li> and/or
> <span> etc then applying a presentation formatting on selectors. Not an
> eloquent way at all to say the least.

What's wrong with using <pre> when you need "strict typographical alignments" for poetry?

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/grouping-content.html#the-pre-element
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