The Poet Laureate celebrates the life of Princess Margaret

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

Professor Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, has written a special poem to mark the life of HRH Princess Margaret. The poem, released on the day of Princess Margaret's funeral, celebrates the life of the Princess in sonnet form.

The Younger Sister

The luxuries, of course, and privilege -

The money, houses, holidays, the lot:

All these were real, and all these drove a wedge

Between your life and ours. And yet the thought

Of how no privilege on earth can keep

A life from suffering in love and loss -

This means we turn to you and see how deep

The current runs between yourself and us.

And now death spells it out again, and more,

As it becomes your final human act:

A daughter gone before her mother goes;

A younger sister heading on before;

A woman in possession of the fact

That love and duty speak two languages.

Reproduced here by kind permission of Professor Andrew Motion.