The Game Of Chess

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



Red knights, brown bishops, bright queens,
Striking the board, falling in strong ‘L's of
colour.
Reaching and striking in angles,
holding lines in one colour.
This board is alive with light;
these pieces are living in form,
Their moves break and reform the pattern:
luminous green from the rooks,
Clashing with ‘X's of queens,
looped with the knight-leaps.

‘Y' pawns, cleaving, embanking!
Whirl ! Centripetal ! Mate ! King down in the
vortex,
Clash, leaping of bands, straight strips of hard
colour,
Blocked lights working in. Escapes. Renewal of
contest.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

27 sec read
346

Quick analysis:

Scheme abCxcxxxxax xxxxCbx
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 552
Words 89
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 11, 7

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic of the early modernist movement. more…

All Ezra Pound poems | Ezra Pound Books

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