Vita Sackville-West wrote relatively little poetry after the Second World War, so "June 2nd, 1953" is notable for that alone; it is also one of the better poems of hers to appear in the TLS, for which she also wrote several reviews (including reviews of poetry by one of her lovers, Dorothy Wellesley). The poem's title refers to Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, which had taken place on this date in Westminster Abbey. It had also been televised. Sackville-West wonders if Elizabeth can be brought into view in another way. Those joint questions "who we are and . . . what we have to do" certainly sound like the stuff of monarchy. As a "daily self" like any of her subjects, however, this woman has concerns that make her one of "us" – her children, for example. (This "personal" approach marked several of Andrew Motion's, the outgoing Poet Laureate's, poems for royal occasions, too.) Alternatively, this fleeting moment of half-awake questions might be seen as a metaphor for the moment of transition, of assuming a role, that had just turned a princess into a queen.

June 2nd, 1953

Madam, how strange to be your Majesty.
How strange to wake in an ordinary bed
And, half awake, to think "Now who am I?"
As we all think to ourselves when with the dawn
The birds first rouse us with the rising sun
And we recall the little facts of our lives,
The engagements we have that day, the photographs
Framed on the table, the books, the telephone,
And piece the bits of our life together, the worries, the obligations,
Eventually making, as the cloud of sleep
Disperses, a quick report renewed of our daily self
And of who we are and of what we have to do.

Am I Elizabeth or Lilibet?
Are the Great Officers of State preparing?
Are Charles and Anne asleep in the nursery?

V[ITA]. SACKVILLE-WEST (June 5, 1953)

To read last week's Poem of the Week, "The Other Mariners" by Patricia Beer, click here.

To read the TLS review of Andrew Motion's most recent collection of poetry, click here.

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