markup in lyrics

[Benjamin Peterson]

Hi,
I need to italize an entire section in a song I am writing. Currently, I have

\text = \lyricmode {
...
  that this air will sud -- den -- ly crack
  a -- long sharp di -- ag -- gon -- als?

  \markup { \italic { The earth hears me.
  The sun hears me. } }

  But the air is like air left
..
}

But this causes the entire \markup section to be set as one word. How can I get
it to change the formatting without grouping the entire section?

Regards,
Benjamin Peterson