Prodigy

Prodigy
by Charles Simic

I grew up bent over
a chessboard.

I loved the word endgame.

All my cousins looked worried.

It was a small house
near a Roman graveyard.
Planes and tanks
shook its windowpanes.

A retired professor of astronomy
taught me how to play.

That must have been in 1944.

In the set we were using,
the paint had almost chipped off
the black pieces.

The white King was missing
and had to be substituted for.

I'm told but do not believe
that that summer I had witnessed
men hung from telephone poles.

I remember my mother
blindfolding me a lot.
She had a way to tucking my head
suddenly under her overcoat.

In chess, too, the professor told me,
the masters play blindfolded,
the great ones on several boards
at the same time.

The first line of this poem is what immediately caught my attention. The image it created for me after reading it was so powerful that I knew I would be forced to read the entire poem. "I grew up bent over/ a chessboard" creates this image of the speaker being used for someone's benefit or in this case due the the title being prodigy, someone's replacement. Further along into the poem, Simic is able to create all this chaos in the background and yet a peaceful and beautiful situation in the speaker learning the game. For example, "planes and tanks" were shaking the "windowpanes" and the speaker had "witnessed me hung from telephone poles" but yet is engulfed in a game. There is also a very distinct and clear image presented when the speaker delves into the game. It is as though nothing else matters, but the exact details of every facet of the game. For the speaker talks about how the "paint had almost chipped off the black pieces," and the "white King was missing and had to be substituted for," clearly showing the degree of detail in this aspect and lack of it elsewhere.
I also really enjoyed the comparison between the speaker's mother and masters of the game of chess, in that both were excellent at their profession or their duties, such that the mother protected the speaker and the masters could play blindfolded. Furthermore, there is this idea that the mother blindfolded her from many things and that master play blindfolded, giving off the sense that her mother was in a way preparing her. Personally, I feel that because the mother had kept the speaker "blindfolded" throughout most of their life, the speaker should be able to understand and comprehend the art of playing as though she were a master, blindfolded and on several boards at once.