Royal family share poem tribute to Philip on anniversary of his death

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The elegy, written by the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, was posted to the royal family’s social media accounts on Saturday, 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. 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.” Buckingham Palace announced Philip’s death just after noon on April 9, 2021, issuing a statement that spoke about the royal family joining with people across the globe to grieve. Edward said: “I don’t think he ever really necessarily wanted to reach his centenary because I just think he thought there would be too much fuss and that wasn’t him, that was just not him at all.” The Queen poignantly marked the occasion by watching the planting of a newly-bred rose named after her late husband, a gift from the Royal Horticultural Society, which was placed in the Windsor Castle gardens.