canto

Canto Definition

A canto (CAN-toe) is the major unit of division in epics or other long narrative poems. Similar in function to a stanza, a canto helps divide a lengthy poem into discrete units, demarcating sections and enabling a coherent story to unfold.

While early epic poems—such as Beowulf, Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid—are divided into sections, Dante Alighieri first used the word canto to delineate these sections for his Divine Comedy. The first English poet to use the canto as a technique of division was Edmund Spencer in his poem The Faerie Queene.

Canto was first used in English in the 1580s and meant “a section of a long poem.” The word originates from the Italian canto, meaning “song,” and derives from the Latin cantus, “song; a singing; bird-song.”

Why Poets Use Cantos

Instead of telling an epic or long narrative poem straight through with no breaks, cantos help divide the larger story into individual linked sections. Cantos serve the same function of chapters in novels or longer works of nonfiction. Having these shorter sections helps the audience better understand the plot without getting bored or confused, while also allowing the author to employ literary elements such as pacing and cliffhangers to greater effect.

The Difference Between Stanzas and Cantos

While stanzas are also discrete units within a poem, they aren’t automatically the same as cantos. Stanzas tend to be shorter and can be used in poems of any length, while cantos demarcate longer sections within a narrative poem or epic.

A canto can consist of one exceptionally long stanza, or it can contain multiple stanzas of varying or set line counts, such as Dante’s use of terza rima (rhymed tercets) throughout The Divine Comedy’s cantos.

Notable Canto Writers

While many poets have employed cantos, a few are particularly associated with the form.

• Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
• Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan
• Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
• Ezra Pound, The Cantos
• Luíz Vaz de Camões, The Lusiads
• Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered

Examples of Cantos in Literature

1. Dante Alighieri, Inferno

The first Canto of Dante’s Inferno begins with the poet telling his audience:

Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself within a forest dark

For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! How hard a thing it is to say

What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,

Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more;

But of the good to treat, which there I found,

Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

Canto I consists of 46 stanzas—45 tercets (three-line stanzas) and one monostich (one-line stanza). In this first Canto, Dante announces himself, gives us the poem’s setting and context, and introduces the character of Virgil, who will guide him through the rest of the poem.

2. Ezra Pound, The Cantos

Pound’s unfinished book-length poem The Cantos is considered one of the most important poetic works of Modernist poetry. The Cantos consists of 116 irregular-length cantos that incorporate myth, literature, and language from many different cultural traditions.

The opening of Canto I begins with the Greek epic hero Odysseus:

And then went down to the ship,

Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and

We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,

Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also

Heavy with weeping, and winds from sternward

Bore us outward with bellying canvas,

Circe’s this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.

Pound continues for another 50 lines. This first stanza is then followed by a second stanza consisting of 19 lines before Canto I concludes.

3. Lord Byron, Don Juan

Lord Byron’s satiric poem follows the exploits of the legendary lothario Don Juan. “Canto The First” opens with the narrator introducing the audience to Don Juan:

I want a hero: an uncommon want,

          When every year and month sends forth a new one,

Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,

          The age discovers he is not the true one;

Of such as these I should not are to vaunt,

          I’ll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan—

We all have seen him, in the pantomime,

Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.

Byron’s cantos are composed using an ottava rima rhyme scheme and the metrical pattern of iambic pentameter. The poem consists of 16 cantos and an unfinished 17th.

Further Resources on Cantos

Connor Sansby examined the history, form, and use of cantos for Thanet Writers.

The Editors of Enclyclopaedia Britannica published an excellent article on Dante’s Divine Comedy that also explores his use of cantos to structure the narrative.

For a dive into Ezra Pound’s fascinating and bewildering The Cantos, you may want to check out this brief analysis at the Interesting Literature website.

Related Terms

• Epic
• Narrative Poem
• Stanza
• Terza Rima