Automatic versewidth

Question

verse package has \settowidth command to center a poetry. Example:

\settowidth{\versewidth}{There was an old party of Lyme}
\begin{verse}[\versewidth]
There was an old party of Lyme \\
Who married three wives at one time. \\
\vin When asked: ‘Why the third?’ \\
\vin He replied: ‘One’s absurd, \\
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
\end{verse}

I have a lot of poetries, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.

Is there a method to do the same thing without the specification of \versewidth?

Like, for example, this:

\begin{verse}
\start{unknown_command}
There was an old party of Lyme \\
Who married three wives at one time. \\
\vin When asked: ‘Why the third?’ \\
\vin He replied: ‘One’s absurd, \\
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
\end{unknown_command}
\end{verse}

Answer 1

The final \cenverse seems to be the command you are expecting. Certainly, it can be transformed into an environment. The first two occurences of your limerick are for the comparision.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{verse}
\begin{document}


I have a lot of poetry, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.
I have a lot of poetry, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.

\settowidth{\versewidth}{There was an old party of Lyme}
\begin{verse}[\versewidth]
There was an old party of Lyme \\
Who married three wives at one time. \\
\vin When asked: ‘Why the third?’ \\
\vin He replied: ‘One’s absurd, \\
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
\end{verse}


I have a lot of poetry, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.
I have a lot of poetry, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.

\begin{verse}
There was an old party of Lyme \\
Who married three wives at one time. \\
\vin When asked: ‘Why the third?’ \\
\vin He replied: ‘One’s absurd, \\
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
\end{verse}


\def\cenverse#1\\{\settowidth{\versewidth}{#1}\begin{verse}[\versewidth]#1\\}

I have a lot of poetry, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.
I have a lot of poetry, and it's impossible to do this for everyone.


\cenverse
There was an old party of Lyme \\
Who married three wives at one time. \\
\vin When asked: ‘Why the third?’ \\
\vin He replied: ‘One’s absurd, \\
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
\end{verse}

\end{document}

Answer 2

This will use the widest verse for deciding the width and center the poem.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{verse,varwidth,environ}

\usepackage{lipsum} % just for the example

\newsavebox{\versebox}
\NewEnviron{cverse}{%
  \setlength{\leftmargini}{0pt}%
  \begin{lrbox}{\versebox}
  \begin{varwidth}{\textwidth}
  \begin{verse}
  \BODY
  \end{verse}
  \end{varwidth}
  \end{lrbox}%
  \begin{verse}[\wd\versebox]
  \BODY
  \end{verse}
}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[2]

\begin{cverse}
There was an old party of Lyme \\
Who married three wives at one time. \\
\vin When asked: ‘Why the third?’ \\
\vin He replied: ‘One’s absurd, \\
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.’
\end{cverse}

\begin{cverse}
Clof, clop, cloch,\\
cloffete,\\
cloppete,\\
clocchette,\\
chchch\dots\\
\`E gi\`u,\\
nel cortile,\\
la povera\\
fontana\\
malata;\\
che spasimo!\\
sentirla\\
tossire.\\
Tossisce,\\
tossisce,\\
un poco\\
si tace\dots\\
di nuovo.\\
tossisce.
\end{cverse}

\end{document}

The second poem is the start of Aldo Palazzeschi's “La fontana malata” (The sick fountain).

I used varwidth for measuring the width; because of how verse works, we need to set \leftmargini to zero (the setting is inside cverse, so it's local).

If you need footnotes in poems, change the code above into

\newsavebox{\versebox}
\newcounter{mockfootnote}
\NewEnviron{cverse}{%
  \setlength{\leftmargini}{0pt}%
  \begin{lrbox}{\versebox}
  % remember the current value of footnote
  \setcounter{mockfootnote}{\value{footnote}}%
  % disable footnotes in the first pass over the poem
  \renewcommand\footnote[1]{\stepcounter{mockfootnote}\textsuperscript{\themockfootnote}}%
  \begin{varwidth}{\textwidth}
  \begin{verse}
  \BODY
  \end{verse}
  \end{varwidth}
  \end{lrbox}%
  \begin{verse}[\wd\versebox]
  \BODY
  \end{verse}
}