I picked up these gems from some very old, but not forgotten material. Charles Tomlinson authored a 105 page book on THE poem on Chess, "Chess Poetry". Lucky for us they are available today in Google Books and have found a new home on my iPhone.

Hint, the SONNET had NO effect on my wife. Doubt I could ever get MY home consecrated in this manner. If you have a good relationship with a wife or significant other, stick to the Morphy prose.

I wonder, if Casey Stengal and Yogi Berra have any chess quotes. They were SO poetic.

--

How can Paul Morphy a chess magnet be ?

For magnets surely draw, not so does he ;

Drawing is what our hero truly hates

With him one sure resource is left ; he mates. R. J. D.

--

SONNET

Not the stern contest on the checkered field

  Nor deep-laid plot, nor calculation nice,

Where foes their subtle, unseen weapons wield,

  Weighing each other's plans with skill precise;

Not there, O lady ! is thy mission found.

  Men love th' exciting intellectual life,

  The war of words, the real or mimic strife;

But thou shouldst walk the consecrated ground

Of home, and make that home a paradise,

  Where serpent never enters, where all smile

Beneath the influence of thy gentle eyes,

  Teaching by patience sorrow to beguile,

Raising man's nature to heroic deed,

To love and charity, and making foes agreed.

Charles Tomlinson