Lawrence Hall, HSG
We Serve Our Princess
Catherine
“We be the King’s men”
– Thomas Hardy and others
We are the King’s people
After the Order of Arthur and Carodoc
Of Athelstan and Edward, Flan Sinna
Kenneth McAlpine, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
And all crown-bearers among our ancient isles
We are the Queen’s people
And because we are the Queen’s people
We know that every daughter of our isles is a Princess
And every woman of our isles a Queen
To whom we pledge our loyalty and faith
We are the Prince’s people
We serve His Royal Highness without reserve –
But perhaps we love our Princess of Wales more
Monarchy can easily be ‘debunked;' but watch the faces, mark
the accents of the debunkers. These are the men whose tap-root in Eden has been
cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach - men to whom
pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire
equality, they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king they
honour millionaires, athletes or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or
gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it
food and it will gobble poison.
-C.S. Lewis, “Present Concerns,” 1948
