{{Short description|Division of a long poem}} {{otheruses}} thumb|right|Detail of a 14th-century manuscript of Dante Alighieri's ''Commedia'', a three-part poem (''Inferno'', ''Purgatorio'', ''Paradiso'') that was divided into 100 cantos. The '''canto''' ({{IPA|it|ˈkanto}}) is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry.<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Canto}}</ref>
==Etymology and equivalent terms== The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the infinitive verb ''canere'', "to sing".<ref name=EB1911/><ref name="MWdictDefn">[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/canto "Canto"], ''The Merriam-Webster Dictionary''. Retrieved 27 September 2015.</ref> This, in turn, derives from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *kan-, meaning "to sing".<ref name="ETO">[http://www.etymonline.com/word/canto "Canto"], "Etymonline", Retrieved 25 Feb. 2026.</ref> The root refers to making sound, chanting, or singing, and is the source of many words (in Indian & European languages) related to vocal music, such as chant, canticle, and incantation.
In Old Saxon poetry, Old English poetry, and Middle English poetry, the term ''fitt'' was sometimes used to denote a section of a long narrative poem, and that term is sometimes used in modern scholarship of this material instead of ''canto''.<ref>'[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/70743 fit | fytte, n.1.]', ''Oxford English Dictionary Online'', 1st ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896).</ref><ref>R. D. Fulk, "The Origin of the Numbered Sections in ''Beowulf'' and in Other Old English Poems", ''Anglo-Saxon England'', 35 (2006), 91–109 (p. 91 fn. 1). {{JSTOR|44510947}}.</ref>
==Form and use== The use of the canto was described in the 1911 edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as "a convenient division when poetry was more usually sung by the minstrel to his own accompaniment than read".<ref name=EB1911 /> There is no specific format, construction or style for a canto and it is not limited to any one type of poetry.
The typical length of a canto varies greatly from one poem to another. The average canto in the ''Divine Comedy'' is 142 lines long, while the average canto in ''Os Lusíadas'' is 882 lines long.
==Examples== Some famous poems that employ the canto division are Ezra Pound's ''The Cantos'' (116 cantos), Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' (with 100 cantos<ref name="bbc-timeline">{{cite news|url=http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/DivineCom.html|title=The Divine Comedy: A Study Guide |work=Cummings Study Guides |publisher=Michael J. Cummings |date=2003 |access-date=2010-01-09}}</ref>), Sri Aurobindo's ''Savitri'' (49 cantos), Ludovico Ariosto's ''Orlando Furioso'' (46 cantos), Torquato Tasso's ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (20 cantos), Byron's ''Don Juan'' (17 cantos, the last of which is unfinished) and Camões' ''Os Lusíadas'' (10 cantos).
== Citations == {{reflist}}
== General references == {{Refbegin}} * {{cite book|last=Dutt|first=Romesh C.|author-link=Romesh Chunder Dutt|title=Ramayana|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=2004|pages=208|isbn=978-1-4191-4387-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RPKav7K9eNUC}} {{Refend}}
Category:Italian words and phrases Category:Poetic forms