Editing Canto

{{Short description|Division of a long poem}}
{{otheruses}}
[[File:MS Trivulziano 1080 incipit.jpg|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 poem|long poetry]].<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Canto}}</ref>

==Etymology and equivalent terms==
The word ''canto'' is derived from the [[Italian language|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>

In [[Old Saxon poetry]], [[Old English poetry]], and [[Middle English]] poetry, the term ''[[Fitt_(poetry)|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 Alighieri|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: A Legend and a Symbol|Savitri]]'' (49 cantos), [[Ludovico Ariosto]]'s ''[[Orlando Furioso]]'' (46 cantos), [[Torquato Tasso]]'s ''[[Gerusalemme liberata]]'' (20 cantos), [[Byron]]'s ''[[Don Juan (Byron)|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]]