canzone, which is by far the most elaborate poem of
the whole, stands alone, holding the central place in
the volume. The third canzone is preceded by four
and followed by ten minor poems, like the first in
inverse order. Thus this arrangement appears as
follows:--

Here, leaving the central canzone to stand by itself,
we have three series of ten poems each. It will be
observed further, that the first and the third canzone
stand at the same distance from the central poem, and
that ten minor poems separate the one from the be-
ginning, the other from the end of the book, and in
each instance nine of these poems are sonnets. It is
worth remark, that while the first canzone is followed
by four sonnets, and the third is preceded by three
sonnets and an imperfect canzone, this imperfect can-
zone is a single stanza, which has the same number
of lines, and the same arrangement of its lines in
respect to rhyme, as a sonnet, differing in this re-
spect from the other canzoni. It may be fairly classed
as a sonnet, its only difference from one being in the
name that Dante has given to it.

The symmetrical construction now appears still
more clearly:--

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