Question for you Musical Types...

I'm not sure it will solve your problem but, technically speaking, when text is set to music nowadays (practice was different before 1600ish):

Guideline 1: words are almost always (there's no such thing as "always" in music) broken up with dashes between syllables or between double letters, as in syl-la-ble. This is assuming one, maybe two notes per syllable.

Guideline 2: If a single syllable gets several notes, there may be several dashes between syllables, though not necessarily one dash for each note. So "Syl---la-ble" would have a short melisma (extra notes) on "Syl---" and one or two notes each for "la-" and "ble".

Guideline 3: If multiple notes occur on single syllable words or the final syllable of a word, use word extentions, i.e. underscore. "Syl---la-ble_____" would have a melisma on both "Syl---" and "ble____"

Guideline 4: Both intersyllable dashes and final syllable extentions can also indicate long, held notes, as in the common hymn ending, "A-men._____", where the final syllable is held for a long duration. Note also that the full stop on "-men." comes before the word extension. The same holds true for all punctuation marks in text settings.

An example:
You are my sun-shine, my on-ly sun-shine.
You make me hap-py__ when skies are grey.___
You'll ne-ver know, dear,__ how much I love you.__
Please don't take__ my sun-shine a-way.__

And a familiar tune from Handel's Messaiah, showing held notes:
Hal--le-lu-ia, hal--le-lu-ia,
hal-le-lu-ia, hal-le-lu-ia,
hal-le--lu-ia!__

This may not give the effect you want and I know other authors have successfully used added vowels or altered spellings. Just thought I'd throw this in the mix.
 
Thanks @CTRandall for the detailed response. That's a good point, one to keep in mind. I'll try that along with some of the other ideas and see what really nails it.

Thanks for helping out!

K2
 
No offense intended, but the reason for those dashes is to match the notes in the musical score.

I would just put quotes around the lyrics and leave the line spacing as you had it. You may indent or center align them. And that’s all assuming that the drawn out “pigs” is not an important element of the story. I know a joke where that is essential to the punch line but that does not appear to be the case here.
 

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