New Books Network Eric Weiskott, "Cycle of Dreams" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021) and "Piers Plowman: A New Annotated Edition of the A-Text" (U Exeter Press, 2025)
Mar 4, 2026
Eric Weiskott, Professor of English at Boston College and scholar-poet, discusses Piers Plowman and his own poetry. He talks about editing the A-text and why a student-friendly edition matters. He describes how Langland’s dream-vision and political, plague-era themes shaped his Cycle of Dreams. He reads adaptive translations and poems that reframe medieval material in contemporary settings.
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A Version Ends In Rending Spiritual Despair
- The A text of Piers Plowman is the earliest, shortest, and likely an unfinished draft that ends on spiritual despair rather than a tidy conclusion.
- It stops with the dreamer preferring the ignorant plowman who can "pierce heaven with a single paternoster," highlighting an idealization of unlearned piety.
Make Student Friendly Editions First
- If you're preparing a scholarly edition, prioritize making a student-friendly, reliable text so instructors can teach the whole work in a semester.
- Weiskott inspected manuscripts personally, spent two summers establishing text and notes, and submitted a press proposal first.
Langland's Kaleidoscopic Poetic Form
- Piers Plowman's form is kaleidoscopic: it cycles genres, pivots ideas rapidly, and resists tidy narrative resolution.
- Langland shifts modes with minimal transitions (often a single word like "then"), producing a breathless, urgent voice.
