Nate,
This way looks great. This will force me to learn style sheets as I've really had no need for them before. I assume that the code can be named and used as a Class attribute for <p> and <div>. By adjusting margin-left and text-indent, lines of poetry could be indented to various levels and any word wrap will be correct.
You, sir, are an HTML expert.
Charlie
P.S. It beats the heck out of the poetry method in the book!!!