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From: eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: TeX and poetry: \obeylines and \smallskip
Message-ID: <1990Dec12.191124.7249@csrd.uiuc.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 90 19:11:24 GMT
References: <50833@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Sender: news@csrd.uiuc.edu (news)
Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development
Lines: 33

xiaofei@acsu.buffalo.edu (Xiaofei Wang) writes:

>I have a problem: 
[ explanation deleted: it boils down to a sort of \parskip
 inside \obeylines ]

>{\obeylines
>I heard the trailing garments of the Night
>     Sweep through her marble halls!
>I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
>     From the celestial walls!

>\smallskip

>I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
>    Stoop o'er me from above;
>The calm, majecstic presence of the Night,
>    As of the one I love.
> 
>\smallskip
[etc]

Try something along these lines:

{\catcode`\^^M\active \endlinechar=-1 %
\gdef\poemobeylines{\catcode`\^^M\active
    \def^^M{\endgraf\futurelet\next\maybeskip}
    \def\maybeskip{\ifx\next^^M \bigskip \fi}}
}

and use \poemobeylines instead of \obeylines.

Victor.