Preventing a Verse Linebreak within a Multicolumn Environment

line-breakingmulticolpdftexverse

I am trying to include a stanza of poetry with a multicolumn environment such that there is no break in the lines of the poem.

I had hoped that

\settowidth{\versewidth}{}
\begin{verse}[\versewidth]

would do this for me. But it hasn't.

Consider the MWE:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{multicol}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1cm}

\begin{document}
\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[3]
\settowidth{\versewidth}{Behind the clouds the sun is shining}
\begin{verse}[\versewidth]
\begin{footnotesize}
\textbf{\textcolor{red}{Be still sad heart. stop repining, \\
Behind the clouds the sun is shining; \\
Yours is the common fate of all--- \\
Into each life some rain must fall.}}
\end{footnotesize}
\end{verse}
\end{multicols}
\end{document}

with the output

enter image description here

Since I am using the footnotesize font for the verses, it seems there should be enough room under the paragraph to accomplish this, but this is not the case.

QUESTION: How may I increase the default width of the verse environment so that each line of verse appears unbroken under the paragraph? In this case, I am not opposed if the longest line extends slightly beyond the width of the column—although I'm not sure LaTeX will permit this.

Thank you.

Best Answer

Use \settowidth{\versewidth}{\footnotesize \bfseries Behind the clouds the sun is shining} to measure the right length of the longest line.

a

It was close call. The column width is 158.27 pt.

The verse width without \bfseries nor \footnotesize is 158.97pt, slightly larger.

The correct verse width is 156.21 pt.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{multicol}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1cm}

\begin{document}    
         
    \begin{multicols}{2}    
            
        \lipsum[3]
                
        \settowidth{\versewidth}{\footnotesize \bfseries Behind the clouds the sun is shining} % changed <<<<<<
        \begin{verse}[\versewidth]
                \footnotesize \bfseries \textcolor{red}{
                    Be still sad heart. stop repining, \\
                    Behind the clouds the sun is shining; \\
                    Yours is the common fate of all--- \\
                    Into each life some rain must fall.}        
        \end{verse}

    \end{multicols}
\end{document}
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