journal 3

Piers Plowman

The author of this poem, William Langland, was born the year Dante died. Langland is considered one of the first major poets in a dialect of what we refer to as Middle English. This is the language that grew out of the influence of Norman French and became the language of not just the underclass, but the upper classes and government after the declaration of Philip II of France.

During the lifetimes of Langland, the anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer, the Hundred Years’ War raged between England and France. The Reformation was not quite beginning on the Continent, but it was getting close. Parliament was in English. The War of the Roses was ongoing in England. The Black Death raged across Europe, including England. The strictly feudal society began to be disrupted due to the economic and philosophical impacts of all of these things.

Basically, all the changes that were ongoing created an atmosphere where a variety of long-standing societal structures began to be called in to question. Langland’s poetry engaged with questions of authority and authenticity. This poem, in particular, raised questions regarding corruption and the difference between seeming and being something (a common theme). As you’ve read the Prologue, you’ve been exposed to his Types – his archetypal characters who all literally and figuratively embody the various roles in Society. You should have noted that everyone is problematic except for Piers and his brother, the Parson. What you need to ask yourself is what, in the years just prior to The Reformation, is Langland doing with this allegory? What questions is he raising that he has to deal with through the rest of his poem? What does he set his audience up to contemplate? What are the issues of social structures, economics, and religion that he considers worth not just commenting upon but critically examining? What do all these things have in common?

Really – you’ll need to work that out for yourself. It is how you learn to analyze text – looking at what’s really there and then taking a mental step back and looking at it for patterns and relationships (metacognition is key to analysis).

Regarding the poem’s language and structure, you’ll notice that the rhymes are very different from the Old English poetry. While Langland uses alliteration, he also uses assonance verse and end rhyme. This combination of strategies is typical of what’s referred to as The Alliterative Revival in English poetry. Effectively, this movement is a response to the devolving relationship between England and France. English poets looked back to pre-1066 English poetry and adapted its strategies to their own writing. It, of course, isn’t exactly the same, as the language has changed significantly. But it is an attempt at creating “Englishness” in poems.

You will also notice that Will, the narrator (not William Langland the poet), sets this whole thing up as a Dream Vision. This is a trope of literature that you ran in to with the Dream of the Rood. Here, it’s used for a different strategic purpose. Remember that context matters. If you live in an authoritarian society and are critiquing things you see in it that are problematic, you have to be able to distance yourself from culpability. With something like a Dream Vision, the poem you are relating is not yours, per se. It’s the vision sent from God on High to you. It’s what good poetry does. Remember Sidney’s claim that poets were both poien (makers) and vates (seers). This means that true poetry isn’t just something the poet imagines – it’s what the poet sees and then relates / creates in the poem itself.

So Langland’s Field of Fair Folk may be a Dream, but it’s a True Dream (per Macrobius) – a message of prophecy from God, related to the poet, who then crafts the poem to move his readers to learn the message by engaging them through delight to want to learn. The Folk, the commentary on them, the valuation of social structures embodied in them, and the values that they lack are all meant to be understood by any reader. But Langland cannot risk being someone who angers Authority. So it’s a Dream. Blame God if you want….

I did make this one short so that you can be working on your research essays. Remember that I will look at any draft version – but only one time per student. I literally don’t dictate how you organize your essay; I grade the work product you submit based on the criteria stated in the prompt regarding mechanics and content. Please do not imagine that I’m joking about any of that.

If you have questions, you should be emailing me via your HCC email or messaging me through Eagle Online.

Next, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Give yourself plenty of time to read it. Try the Middle English, at least for the first verse. Read it aloud to yourself. Poetry is meant to be heard.