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- DictionaryCan·to/ˈkanˌtō/
noun
- 1. one of the sections into which certain long poems are divided: "Dante's Divine Comedy has 100 cantos"
- Canto is a subdivision or part in a narrative or epic poem, consisting of five or more lines such, as a stanza, which could also be a canto. The word “canto” originates from the Latin word cantus, which means “a song.”
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The meaning of CANTO is one of the major divisions of a long poem. How to use canto in a sentence.
- Definition of Canto
- Examples of Canto in Literature
- Function
Canto is a subdivision or part in a narrative or epic poem, consisting of five or more lines such, as a stanza, which could also be a canto. The word “canto” originates from the Latin word cantus, which means “a song.” The Italian poets Dante, Matteo Boiardo, and Ludovico used cantos to divide their poems into shorter sections for thematic understa...
Example #1:The Faerie Queene
This canto describes the characterof the knight, who represents all the qualities of chivalry, such as bravery and fighting spirit. It comprises eleven lines, as compared to six or seven lines of Italian cantos.
Example #2: Inferno
This is another good example of canto, a major section of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Here, Dante describes how he loses the right path when travelling through the forest. However, this canto comprises ten lines as opposed to eleven lines of the first example. Example #3: The Cantos (by Ezra Pound) Ezra Pound has written this poem in 129 parts, and each part is a separate canto. This is the first part in which he describes a journey by ship, which is loaded with sheep, and is sailing away from s...
Example #4: Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
This is the fourth canto of “Child Harold’s Pilgrimage,” in which he describes his journey to Italy. It also shows his lamentation on the decay of ancient civilization.
Canto is used as an introduction to a poem, as well as serves as a unitary prologue to an entire epic. It also enables the reader to understand different turning pointsin the poem. The use of canto divides episodes in a poem to make it easier for the reader to understand.
The canto ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈkanto]) is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. [1] 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". [1] [2]
The word “canto” means “song” in Italian, but the first examples of cantos date back to the time of Homer when epics were recited orally. Cantos are used for epic poems such as Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Iliad’. These poems can reach thousands of lines and even thousands of pages.
Canto, major division of an epic or other long narrative poem. An Italian term, derived from the Latin cantus (“song”), it probably originally indicated a portion of a poem that could be sung or chanted by a minstrel at one sitting. Though early oral epics, such as Homer’s, are divided into.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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.
Canto is a unit of division or subsection found in epics or long narrative poetry. History of the Canto. The word “canto” comes from the Latin word cantus, meaning “song; bird-song;” and by the 16th century, “canto” was used to define a section of a long poem.