Encountering Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman is a dream-vision poem, part theological allegory about the quest for truth and part social satire. It recounts the experience of the poet-narrator, Will, who receives a series of dream visions when he falls asleep in the Malvern Hills. The narrator’s ‘merveillous swevene’ [wonderful dream] (B Prologue. 11) opens up further levels of, and perspectives on, experience and reflection on the question of salvation in a social context.1