Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Elegy for the Queen Mother

Dal Times di oggi:
Anon's elegy for the Queen Mother comes from cyberspace
by andrew norfolk, andrew pierce and ruth gledhill
THE anonymous poem chosen by the Queen to grace her mother's funeral is 
an Internet phenomenon that has been bringing comfort to mourning 
families across the world for at least two years.
 
Far from the pomp and splendour of Westminster Abbey, the poem has graced 
the funeral of a 52-year-old Scottish alcoholic, marked the death of a 
15-year-old high school baseball star, and commemorated the life of 
excess of an Australian glam rock star killed in a helicopter crash.
 
The poem, which may be only a few years old, has been handed to grieving 
families by friends and neighbours, while mourners at one funeral service 
have kept copies and used it to mark the death of their own loved ones. 
The Times can reveal that the Queen spotted it when she was leafing 
through mounds of old memorial service booklets, and set it aside for her 
own mother's funeral. Subsequent attempts by staff of Buckingham Palace 
and by the Dean of Westminster, Dr Wesley Carr, to establish the identity 
of the author have proved fruitless. 
Inquiries by The Times suggest that the poem, far from being the work of 
a major contemporary author, may have been penned quite recently in a 
magazine or for a series of condolence cards. 
And although read frequently at funerals and appearing on dozens of 
websites, it appears never to have been widely published in print. 
According to literary experts, She Is Gone is a poem which had no known 
author, little history and has never been widely published in the 
English-speaking world. 
It has been given at least six different titles and the sex of the 
deceased switches between versions. Some are even written in the first 
person. 
It is often wrongly attributed to Charles Brent, the Canadian-born 
Episcopalian bishop of the Philippines in the years before the First 
World War, who wrote several poems but not She Is Gone. 
At the Poetry Library at the Royal Festival Hall in London, which has 
records of every English language poem published since 1912, extensive 
searches revealed no trace of the verse. 
Inquiries at The Poetry Society also drew a blank. No one there knew of 
the poem and no one, it was made clear, wished to say anything about its 
literary merits.
The world's most extensive English and American literature database, 
Literature Online, known as the Chadwyck-Healey database, also had no 
record of the poem. Nor is there any sign of it in Granger's Index to 
Poetry, a 2,048-page tome from the Columbia University Press which lists 
the titles and first lines of almost every English-language poem ever 
published. One member of staff at the Poetry Library, who tried but 
failed to identify the author, said of the verse: 'It is the sort of 
thing you find on cards that you pick up in churches, or maybe in a 
magazine.' 
Nevertheless, the words summed up the Queen's wish, which she expressed 
in her broadcast to the nation, that people should celebrate the life of 
her mother rather than grieve. 
A Palace spokeswoman said last night: 'I understand that Her Majesty 
found the poem in a memorial service card. It very much reflected her 
thoughts on how the nation should celebrate the life of the Queen Mother. 
To move on. 
'I do not know whose memorial service the poem came from. I am not sure 
that we will ever know that. Many of them are sent in.' 
Dr Carr was asked by Buckingham Palace to include the poem in the funeral 
order of service shortly after the death of the Queen Mother. 
The poem was one of the first items to be faxed from the Palace when 
talks began about the order of service, which was finalised last Friday. 
The Dean said it was the first time a work of this nature had appeared in 
the order of service connected with the Royal Family. 
Dr Carr said that the poem had been included to serve as a meditative 
piece while the congregation waited for the funeral to begin. 
'Increasingly people are doing this sort of thing in service sheets. 
Pieces such as this provide a framework for meditation while people are 
waiting. 
'I was not moved by it as poetry so much as struck by its being apposite 
to this funeral.'
Who is the poet?
Anyone who can identify the poet is asked to contact The Times today on 
020-7782 5000 or by email 
andrew....@thetimes.co.uk
 
 
-- 
Ciao,
Anna

 by andrew norfolk, andrew pierce and ruth gledhill
Sorry, dimenticavo: per vedere il testo della elegy
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-263552,00.html
-- 
Ciao,
Anna

 ...
1. The article states that the same poem previously graced the
funerals of "a 52-year-old Scottish alcoholic", "a 15-year-old high
school baseball star" and " an Australian glam rock star ". One of the
article's authors invites us to help him trace the poem's origin but
fails to give us the names of these persons and when and where the
funerals took place.
2.  The article says in one part that the poem "may be only a few
years old", in another part that " the Queen spotted it when she was
leafing through mounds of old memorial service booklets", and in a
third part that the poem "may have been penned quite recently". I see
a contradiction here between recent (new) and old.
Altogether not a well-researched article for what once was a
prestigious daily newspaper.
---
Xakero
P.S. For a better legible text of the poem, see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/queenmother/article/0,2763,681441,00.html
 or
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_1922000/1922964.stm#poem
P.P.S. I am sorry to see you gone, Your Royal Highness The Queen
Mother. It was a privilege to have known you and I shall treasure your
memory.

 memory.
Not an overt Monarchist by any means, I too was much saddened to see one of
Britain's most enduring figures pass away.
An altogether remarkable woman in many ways.
R.I.P.
I remain as always your humble and obedient servant,
Bambi
dtb

 memory.
A privilege indeed.
We shall pay homage to her at our next raduno, shan't we?
I don't know... I kind of *smell* a forthcoming raduno. Is it just my 
impression?
-- 
Ciao,
Anna

 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:MPG.1720dd4d4...@news.tin.it...
<> Sorry, dimenticavo: per vedere il testo della elegy
<> 
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-263552,00.html
I'll buy this one:
www.guardian.co.uk/queenmother/article/0,2763,682536,00.html
Tabhall