That's a very interesting story. I don't see narrative poems that often, but of the ones I've seen online, this is great. This is quite an interesting look as to why we, as humans, seem to fear or love dragons. I also find it interesting that they seem to appear in nearly every culture.

I guess it's pointless to say I'm intrigued.

While the rhyming was well done, the narrative completley contradicted most of the world's dragon REAL dragon legends........ except for the most basic children's fairytales intended for five year olds written in modern times by people ignorant of real dragon lore, or how dangerous and impossible to kill a large dragon would really be.

A mere man killing all the dragons in the world with lance and spear? Even killing one large dragon would be absurd. And the dragons are quite content to let him continue killing them all, simply to leave a curse that humans would at least fear the memories of them? This makes absolutely no sense. Why would dragons have any less survival instinct than a cockroach?

In Eastern cultures dragons are benificient creatures and billions still believe they exist, control natural phenomena and bring good luck. There is no hint of the notion they have been slain by puny human dragonslayers.

And in Western culture (at least in the earlier times that your poem evidently takes place, dragons were ALSO heavenly creatures of which there was only one disobedient one (Satan). In fact, virtually every medieval church had friezes of judgement day when the BIG dragons would be released from heaven by Gabriel to devour all of the sinners in the world.

Your "fairy tale/dungeons and dragons game" notion of brave humans exterminating dragons stems from one catholic bishop's attempt to make his book about the Saints more interesting to ignorant people by adding a few stories of Saints slaying dragons, that at the time this was written were understood to be the still small babies of the Satan dragon (becasue in those days nobody was stupid enough to think a person could kill a large dragon - unlike modern fairytale/fantasy writers who simply have no concept of human ability and how dangerous something like a dragon would really be.

...Do you think before you post? I mean, think clearly. Please... take an English literature course. You may just learn that you are making several horrible assumptions. I take it you have NEVER studied poetry that was not formal things such as a sonnet or haiku. You are assuming this takes place in the same world as here. That is almost NEVER the case in literature save for historical texts.

Writing all of this in rhyme had to be quite an interesting experiment, and I know from experience just how long and painstaking something like that can be, while still keeping a cohesive story.

I do like the resolution here though, and how it nicely ties into more current society. A neat idea to have one dragon mess it up for all dragons, and one human do the same for his species.

I'll tell you a secret. I originally started writing this just to rhyme "diverse" with "curse".

In all seriousness, though, you bring up two very good points that I fear many miss. None of this is intended to be taken completely literally -- it's not about how impossibly good the King is at fighting, or about how the poor dragons seem to be dropping like flies. The main of it is a hypothesis, a "guess", on why we're at the point we are today. Why flesh-and-blood dragons are physically nowhere to be seen, yet we've (in aggregate) still been so obsessed with them for hundreds and hundreds of years... even without factoring otherkin into the matter!

Personally, I don't trust the King, and I think he was making up the story about that vicious black dragon. Or at the very least, if it was dark, how could he be certain of the color, or even the species of the attacker? Very shady, I say. But I could be wrong.

One thing I usually like to ask readers about: What do you think about the tone of the narrator? In particular, how he/she uses the word, "King"? Most of the story seems to be about espousing the King's violent adventures, but whose side is the narrator really on?

I picture the narrator as a human bard honestly. So while theoretically impartial, he's going to side more with the king with adjectives and the like. After all, one doesn't turn against their own species when singing a heroic ballad! Particularly with profit on the line from donations.

Not really what I had in mind, but I'll give you 10,000 bonus points for creativity, and for making me chuckle. You definitely bring up a very valid point -- keeping that profit is key.

Well, the idea was that the King is only called a king... because he apparently has no other name to go by. Whereas near the very end, the narrator calls the dragons "kings" of his own accord, kind of as a symbol of respect. If it is a human bard talking, perhaps he's just being very subtle about where his true admiration lies?

Hrm, a very subtle and sneaky bit of writing there, nice!

Man, you tricky writers and your hidden meanings. Next thing you know, you'll tell me Animal Farm is about more than just some rowdy barnyard happenings.