Why can't we have <blockquote>?

I have been frustrated time and again by total inability to figure out how to get FORCED line breaks without also forcing a paragraph break.

This renders it *completely impossible* to post anything of a poetic nature - I have been forced to resort to " / " to indicate where the line breaks should have been.

Such desperate shifts only work with very short pieces and are a pathetically feeble substitute for the real thing.

Must we be limited to prose forever?