"The Light of Asia" was divided into ______ cantos.

Concept

Long narrative poems are traditionally structured into formally numbered divisions — called "books," "cantos," or "chapters" — each covering a distinct stage of the story, letting a reader track the progression of a lengthy narrative.

Application

Sir Edwin Arnold's "The Light of Asia" (1879) is an epic poem that narrates the life and teaching of Gautama Buddha. Arnold organized this narrative into eight such divisions — titled sequentially "Book the First" through "Book the Eighth" — tracing Siddhartha's royal birth and sheltered youth, his renunciation of the palace, his years of ascetic practice, his enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree, and the eventual spread of his teaching.

Cross-check / Contrast

• Four is the count associated with the Four Noble Truths, the central teaching the poem describes Buddha as discovering — not the number of divisions the poem is organized into.

• Six is the count associated with Siddhartha's years of ascetic practice before enlightenment — not the number of divisions the poem is organized into.

• Seven is the count associated with the weeks tradition holds the Buddha spent near the Bodhi tree after enlightenment — not the number of divisions the poem is organized into.

The poem's own contents therefore confirm eight as the number of its structural divisions.