Multiple rhythms in same score

[Don Gingrich]

What I think that I want to do may simply be 
impossible -- I'll say that at the start.

When I see full scores for a number of songs published,
it is clear that the reason that various verses are printed
separately is that one or more bars have significantly
different rhythm from the first verse.

But, when attempting to publish a score with the goals of:
1) fit it all on one or at most two A4 sheets
2) put the lyrics under the score (melody line) 
3) put guitar chords above the score

The case of a quarter note split into two eighth notes
with a dotted tie and \set \ignoreMelismata = ##t
\unset \ignoreMelismata in the lyrics works for most 
cases, but I'm dealing with variations that don't easily
fit this solution.

I'm left with a dilemma -- on the score I'm engraving at
present, Tom Paxton's "Marvellous Toy" it is becoming 
clear that I've got at least one bar where the first verse
should be
b4 b b8 a g4

and one of the other verses looks like

b4 b b g

And I'm fairly certain that I need to replace a:

4. 8 4 with a triplet in another instance

Is there a possible way to show variant notes in a bar
with lyrics optionally binding to one or the other?

I'm guessing that the answer is  "no" since publishers like 
to reduce the page count, where possible. And I've never 
seen this done.

So, I won't be too frustrated if the answer is, "It can't
be done"

Cheers and thanks

-Don
-- 
Don Gingrich
address@hidden