Ode to Chess (a collaborative effort)

Verse 1:

Row after row with strict impunity

the intrepid pawn marched forward

through the pile up of cataclysmic sacrament

in fierce scrutiny, heedless of its mortality

little did seem its destiny, queen

Do I hear a verse 2, 3, ... from the peanut gallery?  Your turn...

You just started a poem, addressed to chess, and as English is not my mother language, I cannot help you further, but, being a chess addict, I also have some 180 poems on chess  --  in Dutch !  --  and only two in English.

It is a pity I don't know the Dutch writer ( I've got a copy ) but it is (recently) written in the old style of William Shakespeare  :  

" Ladies  at  Chesse " 

Behold these nymphs with rosy fingers play                                                  the game that hitherto was Man's preserve.

The dainty locks, that round their temples, sway                                     as if to mock their faces' stern reserve.

Thees graceful heads, bent down in deepest thoughts,                             are filled with schemes how to outwit the foe,                                       soft lips, not pouting sweetly as they ought,                                            but purs'd in grim resolve to overthrow.

The Royal Game holds firmly them in thrall,                                            Goddess Caïssa's vestal virgins, they                                                       to serve her give with zealous heart their all,                                         cruel to conquer, ruthless to out-play.

Look on in wonder, ye who watch them fight,                                         the comely amazons of mental might !

Perhaps some Dutch reader can help us find the writer ! 

What a pity that the lay-out is disturbed, apparently a problem in typewriting on these forums,  but the text is okay.

Nice poem!  I'm not sure of the original formatting, but I tried to make it more readable:

" Ladies  at  Chesse " 

   Behold these nymphs with rosy fingers play                                                  

       the game that hitherto was Man's preserve.

  The dainty locks, that round their temples, sway                                    

      as if to mock their faces' stern reserve.

  Thees graceful heads, bent down in deepest thoughts,                            

      are filled with schemes how to outwit the foe,                                      

  soft lips, not pouting sweetly as they ought,                                          

      but purs'd in grim resolve to overthrow.

The Royal Game holds firmly them in thrall,                                            

   Goddess Caïssa's vestal virgins, they                                                      

to serve her give with zealous heart their all,                                         

   cruel to conquer, ruthless to out-play.

Look on in wonder, ye who watch them fight,                                        

   the comely amazons of mental might !

Thanks !     And so follows the second poem :

Adjourned Game

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed

to seek repose for brains with problems tired;

but then returns the day's game in my head

to rack my mind, it's energy expired.

How can I still continue in this fight

that am debarred the benefit of rest ?

When day's oppression is not eased by night

but day by night, and night by day oppressed ?

For yet my soul's imaginary sight

presents the chess-board to my jaded view;

it, like a blazing shield, hangs in the night,

suggesting countless moves, both old and new.

Exhaustion wins, the game seems lost no longer,

but with the dawn new doubts return the stronger.

( I hope we find the Dutch poet of these poems )

I am that old that I remember the adjourned games in the past, you had to go to the library to look for a book on endgames, to find a solution.

Oh, how good, no adjournments more in modern play, just finish it.

But in general, the knowledge of endgames ( the study of them ) is less than say 40-60 years ago.        That's a pity  !

Interested in poems ? Watch that other forum in which others and me posted parts of the original poem " Caïssa " by Sir William Jones ( 1763 ).