Line in excerpt and max 5 lines

If you type your poets like this in the editor and separate them by new lines:

This is a phrase

This is another phrase

Then you can divide them by new line, and then return them to the front-end. You can do this by using the get_the_excerpt filter. This goes in your theme’s functions.php file:

apply_filters( 'get_the_excerpt', 'divide_by_newline' );
function divide_by_newline() {
    // Get the content of the poet
    $content = get_the_content();
    // Let's trim the excerpt by default value of 55 words
    $content = wp_trim_words( $content , 55, '...' );
    // Check if it's empty
    if( $content ) {
        // Divide the poets by new line 
        $content_array = explode( "\n", $content );
        // Store 5 of them into a string
        foreach( $content_array as $key=>$phrase ) {
            if( $key < 6 ) {
                $excerpt .= '<span class="poet-excerpt">'.$phrase.'</span>';
            }
        }
    } else {
        $excerpt="";
    }
    // Return the data
    return $excerpt;
}

Now, your excerpt’s structure will be like this:

<span class="poet-excerpt">This is a phrase</span>
<span class="poet-excerpt">This is another phrase</span>

We’re not done yet. You have to change the default view of your spans. By default, a span is an inline element, it means they will not make a new line. By using this piece of CSS, we make them behave like blocks:

.poet-excerpt{
    display:block;
}

You can easily add this by heading to Appearance > Customizer > Custom CSS without modifying your style.css.

But I have to mention, this works well only if you have a poet. This does not work for other excerpts.

All done. Code is also poetry!