“The poet hidden within us” Djoûmane, dream, myth, and poetry

Confronting the Romantic paradigm of dream symbolism with the contemporary psychological paradigm, the author hypothesizes that everything in Djoûmane hinges around the question of the ambiguous relationship between dream and myth. By ending his novella with an ironic twist, suggesting that the fable is only a dream, is Mérimée taking a demystifying approach? Or does he instead reveal their deep kinship, thus revealing “the poet hidden within [him]”?