Inviting the reader to exercise his own imagination with the aid of hints and cues rather than putting his meaning in prosaic terms, the meditative author of Piers Plowman takes one of the well-known roads of poetical composition. He stands with the poets who find it more to their liking to hint than to assert. On this account their work becomes relatively difficult to interpret. Time further adds to the obstacles implicit in their technique. Hence many of the controversies of scholars and the justification for what may at first glance seem a wasteful commentary. One cannot expect to leap suddenly to an understanding of so subtle and complex an allegory as Piers Plowman. Only through honest controversy and repeated effort is marked progress to be made.