Yahoo Finance Joyful queen presents poetry award over Zoom from Windsor Castle
The smiling queen gave a poetry award over Zoom from the comforts of Windsor Castle.
Her Majesty was forced to pull out of Cop26 shortly after she spent a night in hospital and doctors ordered the 95-year-old monarch to rest.
Over Zoom, she delivered the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry to English poet David Constantine.
Always glamorous, Elizabeth II was looking lovely in her floral dress and pearl necklace while she delivered the poetry award.
She told him: “I’m very glad to have the chance to see you if only mechanically this morning.”
Her Majesty then joked about the medal: “I don’t know what you do with it. Do you put it in a cupboard?”
The poet told the queen he will proudly show off the medal to his children and grandchildren back at home.
To which, she responded: “Well, that will be nice, it’s rather a nice medal isn’t it?”
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage congratulated Mr Constantine on the honour.
Mr Constantine was recommended for the 2020 award for his 11 books of poetry, especially his Collected Poems published in 2004 which include three decades of his work.
When the award was first announced last year, Armitage said: “Above all, David Constantine is a humane poet – a word often used in connection with his work as if, in noticing and detailing the ways of the world, he is doing so on behalf of all that is best in us.
“For over 40 years he has shaped a body of work that stands in comparison with that of any of his contemporaries, not just at home but internationally, navigating and negotiating that space between everyday events and their metaphysical or spiritual otherness.”
It comes after the queen “regretfully” announced she was unable to attend Cop26.
The Palace said in a statement: “Following advice to rest, the Queen has been undertaking light duties at Windsor Castle.
“Her Majesty has regretfully decided that she will no longer travel to Glasgow to attend the Evening Reception of COP26 on Monday, 1st November.
“Her Majesty is disappointed not to attend the reception but will deliver an address to the assembled delegates via a recorded video message.”
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