Hi everyone!
I’ve been typing away working on a poetry contest this month, and I had a question about this last poem I was working on. These three lines bug me. Something about them feels… off. Is it just me? I think it’s the “was that the/she/a” part - that doesn’t sound grammatically correct to me. 
What he didn’t know, was that the princess was a mage.
What he didn’t know, was that she had means of escape.
What he didn’t know, was that a dragon was her fiancé.
Maybe try replacing the “was” with “is”?
“What he didn’t know is that the princess was a mage.”
Grammatically, it looks fine. “was” is correct since it’s past tense. The biggest issue I see is that they run a little long and are a bit repetitive. Sometimes this is desired in poetry, so that might come down to a judgment call for you, but here’s how I would change it.
But he didn’t know that the princess was a mage.
Nor did he know that she had a means of escape.
Or that her fiance was a dragon.
You could also consider replacing dragon with snake or drake in your last line.
“What he didn’t know is her fiance was a drake”.
In doing this, you also maintain the trochaic-septameter-like rhythm of the previous two lines, which could help the last line match with them.
The repetition is intentional for the poem. Here is the full version if that helps: Moon Gate: Volume I - Escape - Wattpad
I’m fine with the fiance even though it’s more of a slant/soft rhyme. It’s the "was that"s that feel like slang? Kind of like how people say “that that,” but it should be one “that”?
I was thinking the first line could be changed to “What he didn’t know, was the princess was a mage,” and remove “that” from there at least.
Also, isn’t a drake a duck? 
That’s what google’s telling me.
Olde English for dragon.
Actually now that I think about it, maybe I can remove all the "that"s. So it would be:
What he didn’t know, was the princess was a mage.
What he didn’t know, was she had means of escape.
What he didn’t know, was a dragon was her fiancé.
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