Poetry Friday: The Villain’s Point of View

This Poetry Friday finds the muse with me. I just wrote a poem on the subject of a fabled villain. The words came easily such as they do when I mull them over in my head for several days.

The idea is not mine. It is a prompt from our state poetry group, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. First, I made a list of villains. They included:

Maleficent – Snow White

Captain Hook – Peter Pan

Shere Khan – The Jungle Book/Mowgli

Rumpelstiltskin 

The Pied Piper of Hamlin

Stepmother in Cinderella

The Wolf in the Three Little Pigs

The Witch in Hansel and Gretel

Queen of Hearts – Alice in Wonderland

Giant – Jack and the Beanstalk

Then, true to my own way, I researched villains. I love the research part of writing for I always learn something new!

I found several sources for guidance:

Some Fairy Tale Villains: https://www.themarysue.com/best-fairy-tale-villains-ranked/

Check for Villain Characteristics: https://prowritingaid.com/antagonist-vs-villain

Then, after some thought, I chose the villain I would write a poem about – in his or her voice! Including rhyming couplets was an additional, but optional, part of the challenge. I Included these throughout with the exception of the first and last lines.

This morning, after writing an article for Medium on poetry, which you can read here later today once the link is live, I wrote an 18-line poem on one of the villains. Another stipulation of the prompt is that it cannot be more than 24 lines long.

It’s done.

I read it aloud. I liked how it sounded. The villain’s character traits came through.

Now I have to let it “sit” for a few days.

After that, I’ll read, revise (if needed), and submit it to the appropriate party in the WFOP group.

Even if nothing comes from it, the poem prompt was so much fun! I might have to try another!

What villain do you think I chose? Why? Are you going to try this? Tell me in the comments!

As an aside, I found that the author, Neil Gaiman, has written a number of books using a fabled villain’s POV. I’m off to the library this afternoon to see if I can check one of them out! It might be a fun read!

Lastly, my day for writing a line in the 2023 Progressive Poem is next week, the 19th. I purposely have not been reading along so that I do not overthink my line. I will definitely have some comments for others this week as I prepare for adding to the poem myself.

Today’s Poetry Friday host is Jone at her blog. Thanks for hosting Jone!