it's 4am as of me typing this out so forgive any spelling mistakes or gibberish but i for the life me can't Stop thinking about this
at face value the poem is about a dragon who guards the castle for the king and his family, and the narrator is a clumsy princess that the dragon isn't too fond of and she gets exiled as its revealed that the king and the dragon are one and the same or similar
in my dissection of the poem i will be presenting the idea that the theme of this poem is the rift created between a (probably neurodivergent?) child and a parent
firstly we have our narrator, the princess who represents the child growing up in an environment unsuited for her, she introduces herself as an improper princess
I'd like you to order of the information we get "i am an improper princess" instead of "i am the princess" and then continuing*, to me this symbolizes her own self resentment in one line, probably something that she's been told since a young age which correlates with the fact that a lot of kids in verbally abusive households are always told what they AREN'T (ex: "why can't you be like the other kids")
this line is also the basis for the idea that this is about a neurodivergent Person's experience because the word "improper" implies a standard of performance that the princess cannot reach, much like neurodivergent people find difficulty adapting to neurotypical people's expectations thus being scrutinized for it, this is cemented by the princess calling herself wrong and saying "i fail easy tasks"
*Note : i put emphasis on the wording of this line because i think "princess" doesn't really rhyme with the rest of the verse BUT English isn't my first language so i could be pronouncing things differently this breaking the rhyme, which is why i assumed nort was drawing attention to this line specifically
next up are the dragon and the king are both two sides that represent the parent (i will change the term parent with father to make a distinction between them and the mother which I'll get into) :
• how do we know they're the same person?
we have lines such as "I've tried to separate your faces" alongside the last two verses
• what does the king represent?
the king represents the caring nature of the father, his love for his family his will to protect them from outside harm "my daughters and wife…are worth more than my life…never strike them or you'll deal with me"
• what does the dragon represent?
the dragon represents the cruel side of the father characterized by his anger, impatience and intolerance to mistakes, the dragon's fire is a shout, an insult a scolding and a critique all in one, the dragon is also the protector of the royal family and that may represent the father's effort to provide for his family
the king and the dragon being at odds is a direct cause to the dragon's rage being kept in glass, it's representative of the father's worry/expectations for his daughter making his pent up anger boil with every inconvenience not shielding his daughter from the one she fears the most
"the dragon never raised a claw" is indicative of the father never being physically abusive albeit his frustration still wounds, she runs from his gaze because he is the one who assures her that she's wrong and dull
the father's view of the princess has been internalized by her since she claims all those descriptions and she even describes the dragon's anger as just, yet again representative of how nd/verbally abused children will follow their parents' judgement of their character before they're able to full discover themselves
now I'm not sure what the knights represent exactly since in the king's decree he mentioned multiple daughters so the knights aren't exactly the siblings because then they'd ve the princesses or simply "my sisters" in the poem so they could be other relatives or friends, but all in all the knights are a third party who wish to shield the princess from harm
the queen (the mother) represents a different kind of parent than the father, she amd her husband probably share a similar opinion on their daughter which is why she'd be enabling the dragon's rage by calling down the knights, the mother is enabling the father's behavior either because she feels it's just or she would let her daughter shoulder it in order to not get anyone else (the knights) into this issue or to keep peace
for the princess' exile this is another one i couldn't really pin down what it represents it's literally the father kicking his child out maybe for good
what's interesting to me though is that the princess has seen the father for what he is without letting the king side cloud her judgement, the two images merge together as the father falls back into routine without sparing the person he blamed somewhat a glance and oh my GOD it hots hard bro
the father clearly has his own problems since the dragon and the king are driving eachother mad amd yet again placement feels important because this was mentioned before the princess' introduction
thank you for reading if you reached this point!! i hope my sleepless rambles make at least some sense
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
dailybridgerton
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
yousharknotpass
