That Royal Rain



As millions watched on that rainy day

After the formal crowning in the Abbey

Elizabeth the Second rode thru streets

In a golden coach under the rain sheet



Drawn by eight gray steeds of the realm

Followed by dignitaries who were at the helm

Of places like Tonga, Brunei, Zanzibar

Kelantan, Perak, Johore, Lehej and afar



Heads of State from Australia and New Zealand

From South Africa, India and Pakistan (the real 'un)

Surrounded by troops of the Commonwealth

And Police from the Solomon Islands also jelled 



Pakistanis wearing their bright green head dresses

Canadian Mounties all attired in their red tunics attested

To the far-reaching extent of the British Empire ...

Representatives of so many nations had come so far



All to honor the coronation of their latest Queen ...

The daughter of George the Sixth - she had been

Married to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh 

Himself a descendant of Queen Victoria and a Battenburg



And with their two children (at the time) impatiently tagging

Prince Charles and Princess Anne - both tots then - lagging

For they saw not then the enormity of that serene occasion

When their own mother became the Queen of the British Nations



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

1:15pm Wed., June 2nd, 1999



The Queen's Coronation: June 2nd 1953