Birds as Harbingers of Spiritual Insight in the Dream Vision Genre

This article explores the element of birdsong in the opening type-scene of three medieval dream visions: the Guillaume de Lorris segment of the Romance of the Rose, the Middle English Pearl, and Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess. It details how each poet, through the characterization and placement of birds and birdsong in the scene, signals the extent to which heaven and earth can merge and intermingle here on earth.