The Sport of Spears is a solemn poetic form concerning war, originating in The Ruthlessness of Arenas. The form guides poets during improvised performances. The poem is a single tercet. Use of vivid imagery is characteristic of the form. A form of parallelism is common throughout the poem, in that certain lines use the same placement of allusions. The first line is intended to make an assertion. It has five feet with a syllable weight pattern of short-short-long (quantitative anapaestic pentameter). The second line is intended to make a counter-assertion. It has three feet with a syllable weight pattern of short-short-long (quantitative anapaestic trimeter). The third line is intended to synthesize previous ideas. It has four feet with a syllable weight pattern of short-short-long (quantitative anapaestic tetrameter). The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABA.