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Peter Pan’s Soliloquy

In Never Land, each sunrise brings anew
A day of play and laughter to pursue.
I meet the mermaids, swim in their lagoon,
And dance with Indians beneath the moon.
I once fed Captain Hook to Crocodile!
Still every time I think of it, I smile.

Yet sometimes, when I lie awake in bed,
The Milky Way in glory overhead,
A little voice within says, “Peter Pan,
Would life be more fulfilling as a man?
To grow in Wendy’s world, to take a wife,
With whom to join to make and raise new life?”

The fairies died; some new ones came along,
Continuing to troll their endless song.
I’ve played in Never Land two hundred years,
From simple hide-and-seek to dodging spears,
And yet, I’ve never aged a single day.
Am I a creature solely made for play?

My friends abandoned me.  I live alone.
They all moved in with Wendy, soon were grown,
And one ran off, with Wendy as his bride.
They soon had children, then grew old and died.
Time massacred them all, but me, he spared
So I could see him murder all who cared.

I played with Wendy’s daughter, but she grew
And then forsook me for a man she knew.
Thus, even I, who never have to grow,
Must stay behind and watch my friends all go.
How dear the price to live this life of ease,
To fly, to play, just doing as I please!

I stare back up, as changeless as the stars.
Leave Never Land for realms of men and cars?
To slave away each day, no time for play?
I can’t.  I have no choice.  I have to stay.
Yet still, I ask: would it be best for me
To go, to be a better kind of free?

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Joshua C. Frank works in the field of statistics and lives in the American Heartland.  His poetry has also been published in Snakeskin, The Lyric, Sparks of Calliope, Westward Quarterly, New English Review, and many others, and his short fiction has been published in several journals as well.

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16 Responses

  1. Bruce Phenix

    Thank you, Joshua. An imaginative and poignant reflection, felicitously expressed.

    Reply
  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    This is an excellent idea for a soliloquy — the icon of perpetual childhood descants upon the disadvantages of that state. I have read only a few poems using this particular concept: one was Count Dracula bemoaning the inconveniences of being a vampire; another was a professional hit-man thinking about the kind of life he was pursuing.

    Browning comes close to the trick in some of his dramatic monologues, where certain speakers express regret about things in their lives, or wonder if how they are acting is the best course to follow. This makes things difficult for the poet — he not only has to enter the mind of the speaking character (who already has a public reputation that pigeonholes him to some extent), but must also think of reasons that might come to the character’s mind that make him question the value of his reputation.

    Joshua shows that he can pull this off. Peter Pan is tired of being a child, and is disappointed over the fact that his companions all become adults, leaving him behind. The one catch is this: if you are tired of being a child, that is one of the sure signs that you are growing up. Peter may not know it, but his final question about “a better kind of free” already shows that he has the beginnings of an adult mindset.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Joe! I’m honored by the comparison with Robert Browning, and that was a very astute observation that “if you are tired of being a child, that is one of the sure signs that you are growing up.”

      Some writers have imagined Peter Pan finally making the decision to move to our world and grow up; I imagine this soliloquy would take place not long before that.

      Reply
  3. C.B. Anderson

    Never to grow old sounds good at first … until one considers all the consequences. Never to have had sex or raised a family? I wouldn’t wish it on a crocodile or either a nasty amputee. This poem “hooked” me, and I am now old enough to do pretty much whatever I feel like doing. Very thoughtful work.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, C. B. You’re absolutely right about the consequences of never growing old. Why would anyone want to live forever in a world where everyone else must die? I’ve always thought the problem with death isn’t that we die, it’s that we have to deal with others dying.

      Reply
  4. Cynthia Erlandson

    I was quite “wowed” (is that a word?) by this poem, Joshua, for the same reasons Joseph mentions above. Though it certainly has its own originality, it does remind me of my reaction to reading Byron’s “Stanzas Written on the Road Between Florence and Pisa”, which begins:

    “Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story —
    The days of our youth are the days of our glory;
    And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty
    Are worth all your laurels though ever so plenty.”

    So I wrote “Retort to George Gordon, Lord Byron: “Stanzas Written Looking Back Down the Road of Youth and Age”, which begins:

    “O, do not recall to me revels of youth,
    When roaring hormones blinded us to much truth;
    When we thought we knew all, but knew little beside
    Our feelings, our wants, the demands of our pride.”

    Your line “So I could see him murder all who cared” also reminded me of a man I know who says he is trying to live to be 120. To this idea, my thought is “From the loneliness of longevity, Good Lord, deliver us.”

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Cynthia! I like your poem as well. See my reply to C. B. for my thoughts on longevity.

      Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    At last some real-boy thoughts for this insufferable character! Genuine children like play better than chores or homework, but none want interminable play. Play is their work in the growth process. It involves trying on adult roles and giving “help” to adults, which offers manifold rewards for a child-size contribution. Especially for girls, play is a heavy dose of imagining motherhood. I and other girls could only ridicule the adult actress playing at being a boy in the TV Peter Pan. Good time for a re-writing of him/her, Joshua.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Margaret. I like your assessment of the character; I always found Captain Hook and the pirates much more interesting than Peter Pan. Sadly, much of the younger generation has imitated Peter Pan very well (would that we Christians were that good at imitating Jesus!), loving play and hating work. I agree with your assessment of play (as one might infer from some of my poems on the subject), but today’s world no longer cares for it. Fewer and fewer little girls want to be mothers or even play at motherhood, and both sexes and all ages have abandoned all forms of play other than their digital devices.

      I always thought the idea of a grown woman playing a little boy was ridiculous, as much as you always have.

      Reply
  6. Brian A. Yapko

    This is a wonderful poem, Josh — a soliloquy crafted in rhyming couplets which, I think, was just the right choice for a fantasy story in which the fantasy has begun to rot. The couplets provide a nursery story quality to the piece yet at the same time effective propel the speaker’s thoughts forward (in time if not into adulthood.)

    Your fantasy about James Barrie’s boy who never grew up is much sadder than the original. Necessarily so. You’re dealing with the real-life consequences of never reaching adulthood and living an entire life — perhaps generations of them — without progressing into experience and wisdom. It’s more than fantasy, though. It’s a cautionary tale. There are many, many people now who live in fantasy worlds where all that matters is what gives them entertainment and feels good without regard for how destructive this is to the soul. I think your poem captures something quite profound.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Brian. You’ve accurately determined the point of the poem. As a lot of those people you describe learn the hard way, staying immature is all fun and games until their friends grow up and move on. Barrie made it look a lot more fun than it turns out to be after many years.

      Of course, today’s world has completely destroyed marriage and parenthood (for all but the small subset that fully rejects its way), which have traditionally been the only things motivating young people to grow up. With those gone, why should they go through the hard work and sacrifice of growing up and start families only to get kicked out of them through divorce or being “disowned” by their children? So instead, they waste their lives consuming mindless entertainment. Unlike Peter Pan, they grow old (or not) and die, and then they have to give an account to God for having wasted their lives.

      Reply
  7. Adam Sedia

    This is an incredibly timely subject, with extended adolescence being the rule for well over a decade now (we could get into what Wendy’s granddaughters would be like, but that’s a topic for another poem). You show us through dramatic monologue how life must have seasons, and even the carefree playfulness of childhood grows old — and even the magical eternal child desires greater things because it is in his nature. I like how you have taken the children’s story (and cartoon) and given it an adult perspective.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Adam. Yes, it is a timely subject, and that’s why I had to write about it. I based it on the book rather than the animated movie, but either way, the story denies the reality that, as you say, it’s in a child’s nature to work toward growing up even if he actively resists it. Hence modern culture’s perpetual adolescence grows old eventually, especially when life becomes more and more isolated.

      The original play on which the book was based was produced in 1904, so Wendy’s granddaughters would most likely be older than what you’re probably thinking. I don’t have a specific year in which this soliloquy takes place, but I assume in fairly modern times.

      Reply
  8. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Josh, what a great poem. It appeals on many levels. It’s philosophical, thought-provoking, thoroughly engaging, and heart-touching. It’s also written smoothly and beautifully.

    Children have it tough today. Society is geared to keep them from embracing adulthood with student debt and property prices making it nigh on impossible to live an independent life. At the same time, children are expected to choose their preferred pronouns and gender before reaching puberty in a material world that prizes collective thinking and not the individual voice. I think the Peter Pan of the 21st century is in a most unfortunate position, which is why I love this poem… it has challenged this reader to think deeply. Josh, thank you!

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Susan!

      Yes, the powers that be have pulled out all the stops to make sure as many as possible remain in perpetual adolescence (see my reply to Brian’s comment for more on that). Then they make sure to make lasting friendships as difficult to attain as possible, so the life of today’s Peter Pan is a lonely one. It’s bad enough without adding hasty gender transitions to the mix!

      The original story depicts friends as replaceable for him, but children that age (his development stopped before the first permanent tooth, according to the story) understand the concept of abandonment. Even children adopted at 2 or 3 still feel the effects of abandonment in adulthood. For me, that was a huge hole in the Peter Pan story. I thought about this fact and the issues you talk about with today’s children, and that’s where the idea came from.

      I believe that if he were a real person, he would eventually have the thoughts expressed in the poem, and after a long time pondering the issue, he would finally decide to leave for our world. Imagine the rude awakening he would have if he grew up in today’s world!

      Reply

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