The Queen and royal family have shared a touching poetic tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh to mark the first anniversary of his death. The elegy, written by the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, was posted to the royal family’s social media accounts on Saturday.
It came a year after Philip, famously described by the Queen as her “constant strength and guide”, died peacefully in his sleep at his Windsor Castle home. The poem, entitled The Patriarchs: An Elegy, is read by Armitage over piano music and a poignant video montage showing photographs of the duke’s life, including his wedding day and the birth of his children.
The poem pays tribute to his distinguished career in the Royal Navy. It reads: “On such an occasion / to presume to eulogise one man is to pipe up / for a whole generation – that crew whose survival / was always the stuff of minor miracle, / who came ashore in orange-crate coracles, / fought ingenious wars, finagled triumphs at sea / with flaming decoy boats, and side-stepped torpedoes.”
The duke’s generation is described in the poem as “husbands to duty”, “great-grandfathers from birth” and “last of the great avuncular magicians”.
In its final verse, it reads: “But for now, a cold April’s closing moments / parachute slowly home, so by mid-afternoon / snow is recast as seed heads and thistledown.”
Philip passed away just a few months short of his 100th birthday on April 9, 2021. The Queen is believed to be at Windsor Castle and it is understood she will mark the first anniversary of the death of her husband privately.
On Saturday, an exhibition opened featuring a naval uniform worn by the duke and his admiral’s cap – on display for the first time. The exhibition, at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, looks at the Queen’s close links to the Navy as part of celebrations for her Platinum Jubilee.
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