Vida's Game of Chess by Oliver Goldsmith — Read

ARMIES of box that sportively engage / And mimic real battles in their rage, / Pleased I recount; how, smit with glory's charms, / Two mighty Monarchs met in adverse arms, / Sable and white; assist me to explore, / Ye Serian Nymphs, what ne'er was sung before. / No path appears: yet resolute I stray / Where youth undaunted bids me force my way. / O'er rocks and cliffs while I the task pursue, / Guide me, ye Nymphs, with your unerring clue. / For you the rise of this diversion know, / You first were pleased in Italy to show / This studious sport; from Scacchis was its name, / The pleasing record of your Sister's fame. / When Jove through Ethiopia's parch'd extent / To grace the nuptials of old Ocean went, / Each god was there; and mirth and joy around / To shores remote diffused their happy sound. / Then when their hunger and their thirst no more / Claim'd their attention, and the feast was o'er; / Ocean with pastime to divert the thought, / Commands a painted table to be brought. / Sixty-four spaces fill the chequer'd square; / Eight in each rank eight equal limits share.

Alike their form, but different are their dyes, / They fade alternate, and alternate rise, / White after black; such various stains as those / The shelving backs of tortoises disclose. / Then to the gods that mute and wondering sate, / You see (says he) the field prepared for fate. / Here will the little armies please your sight, / With adverse colours hurrying to the fight: / On which so oft, with silent sweet surprise, / The Nymphs and Nereids used to feast their eyes, / And all the neighbours of the hoary deep, / When calm the sea, and winds were lull'd asleep / But see, the mimic heroes tread the board; / He said, and straightway from an urn he pour'd / The sculptured box, that neatly seem'd to ape / The graceful figure of a human shape: - / Equal the strength and number of each foe, / Sixteen appear'd like jet, sixteen like snow. / As their shape varies various is the name, / Different their posts, nor is their strength the same. / There might you see two Kings with equal pride / Gird on their arms, their Consorts by their side; / Here the Foot-warriors glowing after fame, / There prancing Knights and dexterous Archers came / And Elephants, that on their backs sustain / Vast towers of war, and fill and shake the plain.