A
GAME OF CHESS (TO JOHN BRODIE)
By Gwen Harwood
Nightfall: the
town’s chromatic nocturne wakes (a)
dark brilliance
on the river; colours drift (b)
and tremble as
enormous shadows lift (b)
Orion to his
place. The heart remakes (a)
that peace torn
in the blaze of day. Inside (c)
your room are
music, warmth and wine, the board (d)
with chessmen set
for play. The harpsichord (d)
begins a fugue;
delight is multiplied. (c)
A game: the
heart’s impossible ideal-- (e)
to choose among a
host of paths, and know (f)
that if the
kingdom crumbles one can yield (g)
and have the
choice again. Abstract and real (e)
joined in their
trance of thought, two players show (f)
the calm of gods
above a troubled field. (g)
Analysis
·
The Rhyme Scheme:
The rhyme scheme of “A Game of Chess” is
abbacddc efgefg (consist of eight lines and six lines).
·
The Kind of Sonnet:
This poem belongs to Petrarchan sonnet because
it consists of eight lines on the first stanza and six lines on the second
stanza with different rhymes. Then, from the rhymes scheme, we can identify
that it is such kind of Petrarchan sonnet’s rhyme, so it is clearly belongs to
Petrarchan sonnet.
