Piers Plowman

Medieval English alliterative poem, written in about 1367–86 by William Langland. It tells of a wanderer who falls asleep in the Malvern Hills and dreams of the means to Christian salvation. Piers Plowman represents Christ and other characters include the personified seven deadly sins. As an allegory it has flashes of poetic quality rather than a consistent and coherent poetic effect. The longest of several versions is over 7,200 lines.

The work is structured in two parts, divided into books or passus. In Part I, the poet dreams of events in contemporary secular society in which personified abstractions such as Lady Holy Church, Lady Meed, Conscience, Reason, and the Seven Deadly Sins take part, alongside the idealized figure of Piers the ploughman himself. Part II shows the dreamer searching for Do-well, Do-bet, and Do-best, the good, better, and best ways of life, on the basis of his earlier experience.