, the poemRoman de la Rose, Le (The Romance of the Rose), medieval French poem, a dream allegory based on the courtly love tradition. The poem, written in Middle French and probably begun about 1237, contains 22,000 lines and is structured in rhymed couplets. More than 300 manuscript versions of the work are extant. The author of the first 4,000 lines was Guillaume de Lorris. This section recounts the poet's love for a young woman who is symbolized, in his dream, as a rosebud in a garden that represents courtly life. His aim is to gather the rose, in other words to win the heart of his beloved, but after a succession of despairs and hopes, is unable to consummate his devotion. The remainder of the poem, a further 18,000 lines, is by Jean de Meun; it was composed some forty years later and is much different in spirit. The second poet continued the dream allegory, but used the poem as a vehicle to convey a vast store of information about medieval life and thought. It also contained an attack on women, which was later refuted by Christine de Pisan. Despite these digressions was extremely .