In the same fashion, the poet offers to Morpheus something fitted to his needs, namely a bed in which to sleep. When Morpheus is described in his dark cave, he has "good leyser for to route" (line 172; "plenty of time to snore"), so he sleeps all day and does no other work. This comedic turn shows the difference between the noble, allegorical characters in the story (Alcyone, Juno, Seys) and the realistic, human characters of the poet's world. The fact that the poet is foolish enough to assume that his offer of a gaudy bed in return for a night's sleep would carry the same weight, with Juno, as Alcyone's anguished offer of her life's service in search of knowledge of the fate of her husband, again shows Chaucer poking fun at the narrator.
However, the poor insomniac narrator receives an immediate answer to his prayer (although it is implied that he simply fell asleep while reading). Once he finally falls into a deep sleep, his dream is so fantastic that it apparently defies description. Nevertheless, in a common literary reversal, the narrator endeavors to tell the reader anyway. Here Chaucer shows off his knowledge of classical literature, mentioning two major instances of dream-visions among the ancients. The story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible would have been known to most people through stories, but the reference to Macrobius's Latin commentary on the earlier Latin writer Cicero's Dream of Scipio was erudite. The fact that both of the dreams described in these references contained important commentary on real events foreshadows that the narrator's dream will do the same. Chaucer has now established himself as well-versed in the Latin literature held in high regard at the time, especially with his references to Ovid and classical mythology.
The proem sets the stage for the main story of this poem, the narrator's dream. It can be considered that everything that comes after the proem is the elegy for Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, or is in praise of the poet's patron, the Duchess's husband, John of Gaunt.
