I confess to omitting verses, but I make that decision when I first learn the song, and not withoug careful consideration.

The easiest example would be a song like "Lord Randal." After is established that he's been poisoned by his "true love," there is a long litany of verses where the mother asks, "What will you leave to. . . ." and she goes through brother, sister, father, and in some versions, uncles, aunts, and cousins by the dozens. The next to the last verse, she asks what he will leave to her. Reasonable to assume that if he's her only support, she could be concerned about how she's going to get along. Then, what will he leave to his true love, and he responds, "A rope to hang her, mother!"

Reciting the whole family tree gets bloody boring for both me and my audience, so I skip over it until the next to the last ("What will you leave to your mother?") and then the last, where the punch is.

Makes for a tigher, more dramatic ballad.

Don Firth