For those who don’t know, 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) is a 4 person band. I quickly learned that 5SOS is pretty great, especially their music. I didn’t want to go and not know any songs whatsoever. Throughout the weeks leading up to the concert I was busy studying their music. It was an incredibly impromptu decision, but honestly? That made it so much better. My friend, the one who convinced me to go with her, she asked me to go about two weeks before the actual concert. For example, I’d only ever heard a few 5SOS songs before I hadn’t been listening to them for a year, much less a decade. Some things were more accurate than others. Tuesday, we planned on going to the Grand Canyon extremely early, which meant taking it easy for the rest of the day so we could handle getting up. The rest of the day was mostly dedicated to wandering around downtown yet again. Carolyn, her roommate, Molly, and I all went out for coffee and stopped by Fractured Prune for some of the most delicious donuts. Dutch Bros Coffee, which I had never been to, was donating all profits towards the Second Chance animal shelter. Monday started, as did most of our days, with a stop for our caffeine fix.

It was so hot and bright out but it was still cool to get to see, even with all the little tourist shops. Since it was still pretty early in the day, we decided to go to Sedona, where we had planned to go, but didn't have time to, when I was here in January. It's located in the mountains, all the restaurants we visited were good, and there were lots of places to amble. It doesn't take long to fall in love with Flagstaff, at least for me. Our second day, we went to downtown Flagstaff and wandered around all of the stores. Eliot provides in “A Game of Chess” are what truly make this poem a work of art. In the end, the basic meaning this poem doesn’t bring justice to its ingeniousness as the deeper analysis of the poem reveals so much more. This reference to known suicidal women may also be foreshadowing that these two women with their problematic love lives, and lives in general, might eventually commit suicide as well. Additionally, these references used in “A Game of Chess” often refer to iconic women who committed suicide due to their love problems, which resonates with the dilemmas of both the women in this poem.

Eliot even provides footnotes at the bottom of the pages so it’s easier for us to recognize these references that he often makes in his poems.

Lastly, the correlations and references to other literally works and people in history gives both halves of this poem a deeper meaning. Eliot also experiments with unusual meter (rhythm) for each half of the poem the first part being an irregular unsteady beat while the second part is opposite of that as there is an odd repetition of words to create a sense of steady rhythm. The imagery used in both halves of the poem paint a perfect picture and create an overwhelming atmosphere for each scene and woman. Eliot’s “A Game of Chess” has so much more meaning behind the basic statement of the poem.

Chess analysis