| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Chess-board | | By E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) |
| | | IRENE, do you yet remember | |
| Ere we were grown so sadly wise, | |
| Those evenings in the bleak December, | |
| Curtain’d warm from the snowy weather, | |
| When you and I play’d chess together, | 5 |
| Checkmated by each other’s eyes? | |
| Ah, still I see your soft white hand | |
| Hovering warm o’er Queen and Knight, | |
| Brave Pawns in valiant battle stand: | |
| The double Castles guard the wings: | 10 |
| The Bishop, bent on distant things, | |
| Moves, sidling, through the fight, | |
| Our fingers touch; our glances meet, | |
| And falter; falls your golden hair | |
| Against my cheek; your bosom sweet | 15 |
| Is heaving. Down the field, your Queen | |
| Rides slow her soldiery all between, | |
| And checks me unaware. | |
| Ah me! the little battle’s done, | |
| Disperst is all its chivalry; | 20 |
| Full many a move, since then, have we | |
| ’Mid Life’s perplexing chequers made, | |
| And many a game with Fortune play’d,— | |
| What is it we have won? | |
| This, this at least—if this alone;— | 25 |
| That never, never, never more, | |
| As in those old still nights of yore, | |
| (Ere we were grown so sadly wise) | |
| Can you and I shut out the skies, | |
| Shut out the world, and wintry weather, | 30 |
| And, eyes exchanging warmth with eyes, | |
| Play chess, as then we play’d, together! | | | | |
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