07/08/2026
To celebrate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981, the UK Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman wrote and published an official celebratory ode titled "For A Royal Wedding, 29 July 1981" as a personal wedding gift.
The poem celebrated British tradition, morning sights in city churchyards, and the pageantry surrounding the historic event at St Paul’s Cathedral.
The poem appeared in print in the New York Times on July 27, 1981, Section A, Page 4 of the National edition with the headline: POEM BY THE LAUREATE:
''Let's all in love and friendship hither come Whilst the shrill treble calls to thundering Tom, And since bells are for modest recreation Let's rise and ring and fall to admiration.'' Those lines are taken from a ringer's rhyme Composed in Cornwall in the Georgian time From the high parish church of St. Endellion, Loyal to the monarch in the late rebellion, Loyal to King Charles the First and Charles the Second, And through the Georges to our Prince of Wales, A human, friendly line that never fails.
I'm glad that you are marrying at home Below Sir Christopher's embracing dome: Four square on that his golden cross and ball Complete our own cathedral of St. Paul. Blackbirds in city churchyards hail the dawn, Charles and Diana, on your wedding morn. Come college youths, release your twelve-voiced power Concealed within the graceful belfry tower Till loud as breakers plunging up the shore The land is drowned in one melodious roar. A dozen years ago I wrote these lines: ''You knelt a boy, you rose a man And thus your lonelier life began.'' The scene is changed, the outlook cleared, The loneliness has disappeared. A nd all of those assembled there A re joyful in the love you share.
Sir John Betjeman
