I still love to play chess. So I do not even spend a minute on the possibility to step back.
In recent decades this symbolic or metaphorical lyric has given way to one which leans toward metonymy.
It is fatal for any body of workers to have forever hanging from the fringes of its skirts other bodies on a level just below its own; for that means continual pressure downward, additional difficulty to be overcome in the struggle to maintain reasonable rates of wages.

