The Vision’s Aftermath in Piers Plowman: The Poetics of the Middle English Dream-Vision.

Studies the ways in which “the dreams of the poem specifically relate to each other in terms of their settings and in terms of their being the immediate sources of the poem.” The second and seventh dreams (B and C texts) take place in church; both mark points where the dreamer-narrator speaks of his dreams as a kind of text or book, just as all four of Chaucer’s dream-visions conclude with the author involved in writing. Dream-experience in PPl does not cut the dreamer off from reality; rather, it constitutes an essential reality for the poet and serves as a metaphor of the creative process, embracing education, perception, inspiration, and intention.