Newenvironment for poems

Question

I would like to create a new environment to do this:

\begin{alltt}\normalfont
    \textit{#1}
\end{alltt}

where I would like to put some text instead of #1. Text consists of lines, as a poem:

aaa

bbb

ccc

I create the new environment like this:

\documentclass[20pt]{extarticle}
\usepackage{alltt}
\newenvironment{poem}[1]
{\begin{alltt}\normalfont 
        \textit{#1}}
    { \end{alltt} }
\begin{document}
\begin{poem}
    {aaa
     bbb
     ccc}
\end{poem}  


\end{document}

As result, the poem environment prints all the text in one line aaabbbccc. How to make the new environment, so the lines are separated?

Answer 1

I would suggest the following definition without argument. The \itshape will switch the font to italic

\documentclass[20pt]{extarticle}
\usepackage{alltt}
\newenvironment{poem}{%
  \begin{alltt}%
    \normalfont
    \itshape
}{%
  \end{alltt}%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{poem}
aaa
bbb
ccc
\end{poem}
\end{document}