How to number verses?

Question

In Format verses with incrementing counters it was asked about numbering verses. I responded that the verse package might help, which I still think it could do so, but since then I have been wondering about terminology before trying to improve the verse package. What is the generally approved distinction between poem, verse and stanza? I now feel that the verse package conflates all three and "numbering" verses leads to several options.

The basic LaTeX verse environment enables the typesetting of one or more bunches of multiline texts. The verse package adds some further facilities to this such as providing a \poemtitle{<text>} macro.

Now a poem may consist of a single multiline text or several of them.

In some cases within a poem a multiline text is called a stanza. But in other cases each multiline text is called verse.

When folk ask about numbering verses are they asking about numbering the first item in a poem, or about the stanzas in a collection (verse) of them? Here is an example produced via verse. What should (not) be numbered?

My apologies, my computer went in to a coma and I had to get another and I'm still trying to get everything working again. For instance I have not yet been able to reduce the graphic to a reasonable size.

I realise that this might be out of scope as it regards opinions but I hope that someone might help with the enhancement of the verse package.

I have been able to create code that numbers verses (whatever they might be) on either the left or right but I do not like my current user interface (zero a counter and then increment it for each verse). Any ideas about the user interface?

Answer 1

First a thank you to @JohnKormylo for his input. I think that my problem might principally be with the definitions of poem, verse and stanza. In the Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary these names all occur in the definitions of all the names, so seemingly interchangeable. ( I think that this is what is known as a "vicious circle".)

However the code below is a suggested extension to the verse package letting the user decide when and where to put a verse number.

% verseprob.tex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{verse}
% put something after the verse line (adjust the \hskip as appropriate)
\newcommand{\flagverseR}[1]{%
  \hskip1.5\versewidth\rlap{#1}\hskip-1.5\versewidth}
% counter for verse number
\newcounter{vscntr}
\newcommand{\zeroverse}{\setcounter{vscntr}{0}} % zero the number
\newcommand{\upverse}{\refstepcounter{vscntr}} % increment the number
\begin{document}
\settowidth{\versewidth}{In a cavern, in a canyon}
\poemtitle{Clementine}
\zeroverse % zero the verse number
\begin{verse}[\versewidth]
  \begin{altverse} \upverse % increment the verse number
\flagverse{\thevscntr} In a cavern, in a canyon, \ % put verse number at the left
    Excavating for a mine, \
    Lived a miner, forty-niner, \
    And his daugther, Clementine. \!
  \end{altverse}
\begin{altverse} \upverse % increment the verse number
\flagverseR{\thevscntr}   Oh my darling, Oh my darling \ % put verse number after the line
    Oh my darling Clementine. \
    Thou art lost and gone forever, \
    Oh my darling Clementine. \!
  \end{altverse}
  \end{verse}
\end{document}

I think that this avoids any mixed interpretations of poem, verse and syntax.

I will be grateful for any further comments/disagreements about all this.