| a conventional device used in narrative verse, employed esp. by medieval poets, that presents a story as told by one who falls asleep and dreams the events of the poem: Dante's Divine Comedy exemplifies the dream vision in its most developed form. |
| dream vision n. A narrative poem, especially in medieval literature, in which the main character falls asleep and experiences events having allegorical, didactic, or moral significance. |
dream vision
allegorical tale presented in the narrative framework of a dream. Especially popular in the Middle Ages, the device made more acceptable the fantastic and sometimes bizarre world of personifications and symbolic objects characteristic of medieval allegory. Well-known examples of the dream allegory include the first part of Roman de la rose (13th century); Chaucer's Book of the Duchesse (1369/70); Pearl (late 14th century); Piers Plowman (c. 1362-c. 1387), attributed to William Langland; William Dunbar's The Thissil and the Rois and The Goldyn Targe (early 16th century); and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678).
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