Extension:Poem

This extension comes with MediaWiki 1.21 and above. Thus you do not have to download it again. However, you still need to follow the other instructions provided.
MediaWiki extensions manual
Poem
Release status: stable
Implementation Tag
Description Adds ‎<poem> tag for poem formatting
Author(s) Nikola Smolenskitalk
Latest version continuous updates
MediaWiki 1.25+
Database changes No
License Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
Download
‎<poem>
Quarterly downloads 45 (Ranked 95th)
Public wikis using 10,039 (Ranked 12th)
Translate the Poem extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues Open tasks · Report a bug

The Poem extension allows easy formatting of poems and similar material within Wikitext . Once the extension is enabled, you can put any block of text within ‎<poem>‎</poem> tags, which has the following effects:

  • All newlines are preserved by converting them into ‎<br /> tags
  • The block of text is enclosed in ‎<p>...‎</p> tags (as well as a div of class "poem")
  • Colons at the beginning of a line are converted into 1 em indentation
  • Spaces at the beginning of a line are preserved and no longer invoke the ‎<pre> tag

The extension preserves wikilinks, bolding, etc. if they are present in the poem.

Usage

Example

Input text Output
<poem>
In [[Wikipedia:Xanadu|Xanadu]] did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
</poem>

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Example with indentation

Input text Output
<poem>
Une terre au flanc maigre, âpre, avare, inclément
Où les vivants pensifs travaillent tristement, 
::Et qui donne à regret à cette race humaine
Un peu de pain pour tant de labeur et de peine ; 
::Des hommes durs, éclos sur ces sillons ingrats ; 
Des cités d’où s’en vont, en se tordant les bras, 
::La charité, la paix, la foi, sœurs vénérables ; 
L’orgueil chez les puissants et chez les misérables ; 
</poem>

Une terre au flanc maigre, âpre, avare, inclément
Où les vivants pensifs travaillent tristement,
Et qui donne à regret à cette race humaine
Un peu de pain pour tant de labeur et de peine ;
Des hommes durs, éclos sur ces sillons ingrats ;
Des cités d’où s’en vont, en se tordant les bras,
La charité, la paix, la foi, sœurs vénérables ;
L’orgueil chez les puissants et chez les misérables ;

Style

The poem text is wrapped in a div, which has no style by default; but inherits any style or class option passed to the poem.

For example, while indented text can be used for simple examples to prevent filling and draw a nice blue box, it can be hard to read in some cases, since long lines aren't broken. A similar, but somewhat better effect can be obtained with:

<poem style="border: 2px solid #d6d2c5; background-color: #f9f4e6; padding: 1em;">

When applied to the above example, the result is as follows:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

"compact" option

Applying the ‎<poem> tag with the compact option to a text of more than two lines, every line becomes a separate paragraph. (That is to say, it allows for more compact markup, not for a more compact output.)

Subsequent use of the ‎<poem> tag with the compact option, with up to two newlines in between, gives just a single newline between texts, not a new paragraph.

Thus, applied to texts of more than two lines each, every line becomes a separate paragraph, except that the last line of each text and the first line of the next text are combined into one paragraph.

Input Output Input Output
<poem>
One,
Two.
</poem>
<poem>
Three?
Four!
</poem>

One,
Two.

Three?
Four!

<poem compact>
One,
Two.
</poem>
<poem compact>
Three?
Four!
</poem>
One,
Two.
Three?
Four!
Input Output Input Output
<poem>
One,
Two.
Extra.
</poem>
<poem>
Three?
Four!
Extra.
</poem>

One,
Two.
Extra.

Three?
Four!
Extra.

<poem compact>
One,
Two.
Extra.
</poem>
<poem compact>
Three?
Four!
Extra.
</poem>
One,

Two.

Extra.
Three?

Four!

Extra.

Problems and solutions

  • Variables and ParserFunctions do work inside the ‎<poem>...‎</poem> container, but NOT within the <poem ... > tag itself; this prevents templates with code such as <poem style="{{{1}}}">.
  • One workaround is to use <div style="{{{1}}}"><poem> ... </poem></div> instead.
  • Another way is to use the #tag magic word: {{#tag:poem| ... |style="{{{1}}}"}}.
    • NB: this would however seem not to work with the "compact" option.
Input (inside OK, within not OK) Output
<poem style="{{{1|border: 1px solid Black;}}}">
One,
{{{2|Two.}}}
</poem>

One,
Two.

Input (both inside and within OK) Output
<div style="{{{1|border: 1px solid Black;}}}">
<poem>
One,
{{{2|Two.}}}
</poem>
</div>

One,
Two.

{{#tag:poem|
One,
{{{2|Two.}}}
|style="{{{1|border: 1px solid Black;}}}"
}}

One,
Two.


Installation

  • Download and move the extracted Poem folder to your extensions/ directory.
    Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
    git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Poem
  • Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:
    wfLoadExtension( 'Poem' );
    
  •   Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.


Vagrant installation:

  • If using Vagrant , install with vagrant roles enable poem --provision