Latex: Decreasing the vertical margins in quote and verse

Question

In Latex, by using begin{verse} and end{verse}, there is about a 1-line space between the verse and the surrounding text (on the top and bottom of it). How do you change the amount of space here?

Answer 1

Its probably not the best way to do it, but this works.

In the preamble define a new environment called tightverse that moves the text up the height of a line before and after the verse environment.

\newenvironment{tightverse}
{\vspace{-1ex}\begin{verse}}
{\vspace{-1ex}\end{verse}}

Then in your document put your text within \begin{tightverse} and \end{tightverse} as usual.