Gwen Harwood - A Game of Chess lyrics

Nightfall: the town's chromatic nocturne wakes dark brilliance on the river; colours drift and tremble as enormous shadows lift Orion to his place. The heart remakes that peace torn in the blaze of day. Inside your room are music, warmth and wine, the board with chessmen set for play. The harpsichord begins a fugue; delight is multiplied. A game: the heart's impossible idea- to choose among a host of paths, and know that if the kingdom crumbles one can yield and have the choice again. Abstract and real joined in their trance of thought, two players show the calm of gods above a troubled field.