Grant me the carving of my name...
My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil,
a human braille. My skull, scarred by a crown,
emptied of history. Describe my soul
as incense, votive, vanishing; your own
the same. Grant me the carving of my name.
These relics, bless. Imagine you re-tie
a broken string and on it thread a cross,
the symbol severed from me when I died.
The end of time - an unknown, unfelt loss -
unless the Resurrection of the Dead …
or I once dreamed of this, your future breath
in prayer for me, lost long, forever found;
or sensed you from the backstage of my death,
as kings glimpse shadows on a battleground.
- 'Richard', Carol Ann Duffy
So Richard III was finally laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral yesterday.
And I have to admit, the entire ceremonial from start to finish disappointed me. As a country we do pomp and circumstance better than almost anyone, but I found the whole thing, from Sunday's procession to yesterday's service, just cheap, amateurish and even disrespectful. You wouldn't have thought a medieval king was being honoured. Margaret Thatcher was accorded more dignity and respect!
Given Leicester had the better part of a year and a half, if not longer, to plan the whole event, I just thought it was immensely disappointing. The coffin looked plain and cheap; the carriage was hardly stately or dignified; the flowers minimalist at best; and a bog standard black hearse, for a king? The attendance from the royal family was pathetic, given most of them will turn up for the opening of a school or hospital at the drop of a hat, and this was an anointed monarch we're talking about - Prince Charles was clearly far too busy making frickin' Joan Collins a Dame to honour a royal ancestor. The service should have been a Catholic mass, and certainly not presided over by the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury! And I thought the people turning up dressed in 'ye old Englishe' outfits made the whole thing look like a tourist event, particularly at Bosworth. It's a funeral, not a costume party!
The most moving part for me were the people throwing white roses during the procession, the number of people prepared to queue for hours to see the coffin and the poem read by Benedict Cumberbatch. That was real and honest. The rest just smacked of gimmickry and tourist trash.
a human braille. My skull, scarred by a crown,
emptied of history. Describe my soul
as incense, votive, vanishing; your own
the same. Grant me the carving of my name.
These relics, bless. Imagine you re-tie
a broken string and on it thread a cross,
the symbol severed from me when I died.
The end of time - an unknown, unfelt loss -
unless the Resurrection of the Dead …
or I once dreamed of this, your future breath
in prayer for me, lost long, forever found;
or sensed you from the backstage of my death,
as kings glimpse shadows on a battleground.
- 'Richard', Carol Ann Duffy
So Richard III was finally laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral yesterday.
And I have to admit, the entire ceremonial from start to finish disappointed me. As a country we do pomp and circumstance better than almost anyone, but I found the whole thing, from Sunday's procession to yesterday's service, just cheap, amateurish and even disrespectful. You wouldn't have thought a medieval king was being honoured. Margaret Thatcher was accorded more dignity and respect!
Given Leicester had the better part of a year and a half, if not longer, to plan the whole event, I just thought it was immensely disappointing. The coffin looked plain and cheap; the carriage was hardly stately or dignified; the flowers minimalist at best; and a bog standard black hearse, for a king? The attendance from the royal family was pathetic, given most of them will turn up for the opening of a school or hospital at the drop of a hat, and this was an anointed monarch we're talking about - Prince Charles was clearly far too busy making frickin' Joan Collins a Dame to honour a royal ancestor. The service should have been a Catholic mass, and certainly not presided over by the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury! And I thought the people turning up dressed in 'ye old Englishe' outfits made the whole thing look like a tourist event, particularly at Bosworth. It's a funeral, not a costume party!
The most moving part for me were the people throwing white roses during the procession, the number of people prepared to queue for hours to see the coffin and the poem read by Benedict Cumberbatch. That was real and honest. The rest just smacked of gimmickry and tourist trash.