I have never written poems, even with pencil, but I think that every book
class is equally good as starting point to make a title page, table of contents and index. Which class to choose at this respect is mainly a matter of personal preference, IMHO. These are standard LaTeX procedures and there are hundreds of answers covering any possible problem and customization in these fields in this site.
So the only problem I see is the "verse environment". If that of memoir
of those from the cited packages for typesetting poetry (also exist altverse
or gmverse
in CTAN) does not provide a satisfactory results for you, try to learn to make your own environment (it's not as hard as it seem at the begining!).
If I've understood your question, mainly what you want is a progressive indentation of each line the stanza. This is possible with the parselines
package, as you can see in my MWE.
I also added lettrines (so sloppy, I admit) fading colors and a few ornaments to the tile and ToC.
This is not intended to be a good template,only to show that almost anything is possible with little effort starting with a general-purpose class (in this case, octavo
).
Note: Compile twice is you want to see the ToC.

\documentclass[titlepage]{octavo}
\usepackage[lmargin=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{tgchorus}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{niceframe}
\usepackage{parselines}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\definecolorseries{verso}{rgb}{last}{blue!40!black}{magenta!40!black}
\resetcolorseries[30]{verso}
\newenvironment{verso}{\pagebreak[3]\begin{parse lines}[\parindent=1em\noindent]{\color{verso!!+}\hspace{\row\parindent}##1\newline\color{black}}}%
{\end{parse lines}}
\title{My \LaTeX{} \emph{poetry}}
\author{by Fran (that's me)}
\date{}
\pagestyle{empty}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{1}
\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\begin{center}
\vfill
\Huge \fontsize{75}{60}\selectfont
\artdecoframe{ My first\\ \emph{Poems}}
\vfill
\large\emph{Who know I am \ldots}
\vfill
\end{center}
\end{titlepage}
\curlyframe{\vspace{-8ex}\tableofcontents\vspace{8ex}}
\chapter{Alfred, Lord Tennyson}
\section{\dotfill Break, Break, Break}
\resetcolorseries[16]{verso}
\large
\begin{verso}
\makebox[.6em][c]{\lettrine{B}{}}reak, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
\end{verso}
\chapter{Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870)}
\section{\dotfill Volverán las oscuras golondrinas}
\large
\resetcolorseries[24]{verso}
\begin{verso}
\makebox[1em][c]{\lettrine{V}{}}olverán las oscuras golondrinas
en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar,
y, otra vez, con el ala a sus cristales
jugando llamarán;
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
pero aquéllas que el vuelo refrenaban
tu hermosura y mi dicha al contemplar,
aquéllas que aprendieron nuestros
ésas... ¡no volverán!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
Volverán las tupidas madreselvas
de tu jardín las tapias a escalar,
y otra vez a la tarde, aun más hermosas,
sus flores se abrirán;
\end{verso}
\pagebreak[4]
\begin{verso}
pero aquéllas, cuajadas de rocío,
cuyas gotas mirábamos temblar
y caer, como lágrimas del día...
ésas... ¡no volverán!
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
Volverán del amor en tus oídos
las palabras ardientes a sonar;
tu corazón, de su profundo sueño
tal vez despertará;
\end{verso}
\begin{verso}
pero mudo y absorto y de rodillas,
como se adora a Dios ante su altar,
como yo te he querido..., desengáñate:
¡así no te querrán!
\end{verso}
\end{document}
memoir
actually has a lot of very useful built-in features for typesetting poetry; check the manual.)memoir,
have a look atoctavo
.