[DaleDe]

I do not think you need the first-line in this case. The span is enough. You could just say .first or p.first and then set the content.

.first {font-style: italic}

or

p.first {font-style: italic; }

Let's suppose you want the first line after a header to not indent you would set the standard p as:

p {text-indent: 2em}

but if you have:

h1 + p {text-indent: 0}

Then the first line after an h1 would not indent. This is equivalent to a first-line choice.

Dale