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Queen Elizabeth shares emotional tribute on Prince Philip’s first death anniversary

April 9 marked one year since the Duke of Edinburgh passed away aged 99

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Queen Elizabeth marked the first anniversary of her husband Prince Philip’s death with an overwhelming tribute.

According to People magazine, The Queen on Saturday took to her official Twitter account to share a moving poem written by the UK’s Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, alongside a video montage featuring special moments of Philip’s life and their life together, including their royal wedding day and the arrival of their four children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Alongside the poem, the Queen shared a heartfelt message to the post saying “Remembering His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh on the first anniversary of his death.”

The poem, entitled ‘The Patriarchs - An Elegy,’ begins: “The weather in the window this morning is snow, unseasonal singular flakes, a slow winter’s final shiver. 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.”

“Husbands to duty, they unrolled their plans across billiard tables and vehicle bonnets, regrouped at breakfast. What their secrets were was everyone’s guess and nobody’s business. Great-grandfathers from birth, in time they became both inner core and outer case in a family heirloom of nesting dolls. Like evidence of early man their boot-prints stand in the hardened earth of rose-beds and borders. They were sons of a zodiac out of sync with the solar year, but turned their minds to the day’s big science and heavy questions,” read the poem.

“To study their hands at rest was to picture maps showing hachured valleys and indigo streams, schemes of old campaigns and reconnaissance missions. Last of the great avuncular magicians they kept their best tricks for the grand finale: Disproving Immortality and Disappearing Entirely. The major oaks in the wood start tuning up and skies to come will deliver their tributes. But for now, a cold April’s closing moments parachute slowly home, so by mid-afternoon snow is recast as seed heads and thistledown,” Armitage concluded in his poem.

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April 9 marked one year since the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ Prince Philip passed away at the age of 99, after being married to the Queen for 73 years.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle were absent from the memorial service, owing to an ongoing legal fight with the Home Office over protection for himself and his family in the UK.

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