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

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

Queen Elizabeth paid a heartfelt tribute to her late husband, Prince Philip, on the first anniversary of his death. According to People, The Queen used her official Twitter account on Saturday (April 9) to share a moving poem written by the UK’s Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. 

Also shared a video montage of memorable moments in Philip’s and their lives, including their royal wedding day and the arrival of their four children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

“Remembering His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh on the first anniversary of his death.” the Queen wrote below the poem.

The poem, ‘The Patriarchs – An Elegy,’ opens with these words: “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 eulogize 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.”

“They unrolled their schemes on billiard tables and automobile bonnets, reassembled at breakfast, husbands to duty. It was anyone’s guess what their secrets were and nobody’s business. 

Great-grandfathers became the inner core and outer case of a family tradition of nested dolls from birth. Their bootprints stand in the hardened earth of rose beds and borders like proof of early man. They were sons of a zodiac that wasn’t in sync with the solar year, but they focused on the big science and huge day questions.”

“Observing their hands at rest allowed me to conjure up maps of eroded valleys and indigo streams and plans for previous campaigns and reconnaissance missions. They saved their best tricks for the grand finale: Disproving Immortality and Disappearing Entirely, as the last of the great avuncular magicians. The huge oaks in the woods begin to tune-up, and the sky to come will pay their respects. But, for the time being, a frigid April’s final minutes parachute slowly home, so snow is recast as seed heads and thistledown by mid-afternoon.” In his poem, Armitage concluded.

Prince Philip, the ‘Duke of Edinburgh,’ died one year ago on April 9 at 99, following 73 years of marriage to the Queen.