canto
/ˈkantəʊ
/noun (plural cantos)
One of the sections into which certain long poems are divided: Dante 's Divine Comedy has 100 cantos...
- In 1758 he published The Highlander, a heroic poem in six cantos.
- Furthermore, Dante's work is divided into three canticles (the Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise) and each canticle is then divided into thirty-three cantos.
- The rich allegorical description of the island throughout the first five cantos of the poem offers, in itself, a harsh invective against prevailing Stuart policy.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Italian, literally 'song', from Latin cantus.