The poem is clearly within both the strong mediaeval tradition of the poetic debate, in which two opposing positions are argued, and within the tradition of the "dream vision", in which the narrator falls asleep and witnesses an event often with an allegorical character (such as in several of Geoffrey Chaucer's poems, or in Piers Plowman). It also has something in common with the genre of the chanson d'aventure, in which the solitary, wandering poet overhears a complaint or debate. Wynnere and Wastoure also has some form of relationship to the Piers Plowman tradition. Some critics, such as John Burrow, have argued that Langland was probably influenced by Wynnere and Wastoure, but that he perhaps deliberately diluted its style to make it more accessible to southern readers.Burrow, J. A. 'The Audience of Piers Plowman' in Essays on Medieval Literature, OUP, 1984, pp. 102-16
