[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

When there is an actual linebreak on screen, I can see the shape of the poem/song, etc. When as often happens, a linebreak has been lost, it's obvious when a line is twice as long as the others. That visual cue is now gone from the code view.

Also, many poems have patterns of indentation in print that I have to match with html, by inserting various space characters, alignments, etc., involving usually a fair bit of trial and error.

Hmmm... for now, couldn't you just do something like this:

Search: <br/>
Replace: <br/>/r/n

Any specific reason you aren't wrapping each line in their own <div>s or <p>s?

<div class="poem">
	<div class="stanza">
		<p class="line">The moon blue, shy</p>
		<p class="line">at first to know you now croons</p>
		<p class="line">for your childhood</p>
		<p class="line">spoon. Its edge and back</p>
		<p class="line">once sliced, mashed a world</p>
		<p class="line">into bites and paste fitful</p>
		<p class="line">for your mouth that,</p>
		<p class="line">over the years, has learned</p>
		<p class="line">&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;ab out survival,</p>
		<p class="line">though later you know</p>
		<p class="line">habits form territories, though</p>
		<p class="line">questions, not meanings,</p>
		<p class="line">remain.&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;You, no</p>
		<p class="line">longer amused by the spoon’s</p>
		<p class="line">plastic handle of faded</p>
		<p class="line">giraffes, choose to sweat</p>
		<p class="line">in Hong Kong streets, eat</p>
		<p class="line">take-outs with chopsticks</p>
		<p class="line">&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;th at do not split</p>
		<p class="line">like win-win situations.</p>
	</div>
</div>

Then you can have much better control with CSS + indentation.