# Pseudo equation inside verse: how to align left

I am trying to typeset a song where some lines are repeated. In order to tell what are they, I grouped them using right curly brackets.

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newenvironment{rcases}
{\left.\begin{aligned}}
{\end{aligned}\right\rbrace}

\begin{document}
\begin{verse}
la la\\
\begin{equation*}
\begin{rcases}
\text{blah blah}\\
\text{ha ha ha}\\
\end{rcases}
\text{repeat 2 times}
\end{equation*}
\end{verse}
\end{document}


Output:

Unfortunately the text inside equation is being centered. How can I align it left?

This is not an equation, but I don't know, how to implement such a non-standard requirement and mark the repeated lines without using equation trick.

Don't use a displayed-equation environment. Use inline math mode instead.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newenvironment{rcases}
{\left.\begin{aligned}}
{\end{aligned}\right\rbrace}

\begin{document}
\begin{verse}
la la\\
$\begin{rcases} \text{blah blah}\\ \text{ha ha ha}\\ \end{rcases} \text{repeat 2 times}$
\end{verse}
\end{document}


Addendum: As @Bernard has pointed out in a comment, the rcases environment is defined by the mathtools package. Instead of using lower-level math commands inside the verse environment, it's probably better to create a dedicated macro -- called \vrepeat below; it takes two arguments -- that lets you achieve the desired formatting.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{verse,amsmath,mleftright}
\newcommand\vrepeat[2]{%
\smallskip$\mkern-1.7mu\mleft.\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}} #1\end{tabular}\mright\}$#2}

\begin{document}
\begin{verse}
la la\\
\vrepeat{blah blah\\
ha ha}{
repeat 2 times}\\
la la la
\end{verse}
\end{document}

• good idea, but two tiny problems ... (1) braced lines are flushed right to brace; precede by & to left-align them with one another; (2) they are indented by a small distance; reverse this by \mspace{-\medmuskip} before each line. – barbara beeton Aug 19 '16 at 18:19
• @barbarabeeton - Good suggestions indeed! :-) The OP didn't mention these "two tiny problems", so I didn't point them out in my answer... – Mico Aug 19 '16 at 18:24
• @Mico: rcases already exists in mathtools – Bernard Aug 19 '16 at 18:37
• @Bernard - Thanks. I've provided an addendum to (a) point out that mathtools provides an environment called rcases and (b) provide a dedicated macro that lets the user enter the repeat-related information without having to resort to explicit math mode commands inside a verse environment. – Mico Aug 19 '16 at 19:16
• The ‘Repeat’ or ‘Twice’ mean exactly that but not both. – Bernard Aug 19 '16 at 22:23

No math required: you canuse the blkarray package:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{ebgaramond}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage{blkarray}

\begin{document}
\begin{verse}
La la la\\
La la la\\[1ex]
\begin{blockarray}{@{}l\Right{\}}{\footnotesize\enspace Repeat twice}}
blah blah\\
ha ha ha
\end{blockarray}\\[ -2ex]
La la la \end{verse}

\end{document}


If you're willing to move the repeated part outside of the verse environment, here is another approach, with some parameters you can fine-tune.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage[fleqn]{amsmath}
\newenvironment{rcases}
{\left.\begin{aligned}}
{\end{aligned}\right\rbrace}

\setlength{\mathindent}{26pt} % <--- fine tune

\begin{document}
\begin{verse}
la la\\
\end{verse}
\vspace{-1.4\baselineskip} % <--- fine tune
\begin{align*}
\begin{rcases}
\text{blah blah}\\
\text{ha ha ha}\\
\end{rcases}&\text{\ repeat 2 times}&
\end{align*}
\end{document}