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Goodbye England's
Rose
These are the new lyrics to the song Candle in
the Wind, which was performed by Elton John at Princess Diana's
funeral. The lyrics have been written by Bernard Taupin, who wrote the words to the
original.
(Courtesy of BBC News)
Goodbye England's rose;
may you ever grow in our hearts.
You were the grace that placed itself
where lives were torn apart.
You called out to our country,
and you whispered to those in pain.
Now you belong to heaven,
and the stars spell out your name.
And it seems to me you lived your life
like a candle in the wind:
never fading with the sunset
when the rain set in.
And your footsteps will always fall here,
among England's greenest hills;
your candle's burned out long before
your legend ever will.
Loveliness we've lost;
these empty days without your smile.
This torch we'll always carry
for our nation's golden child.
And even though we try,
the truth brings us to tears;
all our words cannot express
the joy you brought us through the years.
Goodbye England's rose,
from a country lost without your soul,
who'll miss the wings of your compassion
more than you'll ever know.
Copyright DJM Music
Earl Spencer's Eulogy
Full text of Earl Spencer's Funeral Oration
(courtesy of BBC News)
"I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in
mourning
before a world in shock.
"We are all united not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana but rather in
our
need to do so. For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people
taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually
met her, feel that they too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday
morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.
"No Need for Royal Title"
"Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the
world she was a symbol of
selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly
downtrodden, a very British girl who
transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved
in the last year that she
needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
"Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even
though God granted you but half a
life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young and yet we must
learn to be grateful that you
came along at all. Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now
without and we want you to
know that life without you is very, very difficult.
"We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the
message you gave us through your
years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.
"Great Gift of Intuition"
"There is a temptation to rush to canonise your memory, there is no need to do so.
You stand tall enough as a human
being of unique qualities not to need to be seen as a saint. Indeed to sanctify your
memory would be to miss out on the
very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a laugh that
bent you double.
"Your joy for life transmitted where ever you took your smile and the sparkle in
those unforgettable eyes. Your
boundless energy which you could barely contain.
"But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is
what underpinned all your other
wonderful attributes and if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide
appeal we find it in your
instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.
"Without your God-given sensitivity we would be immersed in greater ignorance at the
anguish of Aids and HIV
sufferers, the plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of
landmines.
"Innermost Feelings of Suffering"
"Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made
it possible for her to connect with
her constituency of the rejected.
"And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the glamour, the
applause, Diana remained
throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for
others so she could release
herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a
symptom.
"The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her for her vulnerability
whilst admiring her for her honesty.
"The last time I saw Diana was on July 1, her birthday in London, when typically she
was not taking time to celebrate
her special day with friends but was guest of honour at a special charity fundraising
evening. She sparkled of course,
but I would rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to visit me
and my children in our home in
South Africa. I am proud of the fact apart from when she was on display meeting President
Mandela we managed to
contrive to stop the ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture of her - that
meant a lot to her.
"These were days I will always treasure. It was as if we had been transported back to
our childhood when we spent
such an enormous amount of time together - the two youngest in the family.
"Fundamentally she had not changed at all from the big sister who mothered me as a
baby, fought with me at school
and endured those long train journeys between our parents' homes with me at weekends.
"It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most
bizarre-like life imaginable after her childhood,
she remained intact, true to herself.
"Diana's Goodness Threatened the Media"
"There is no doubt that she was looking for a new direction in her life at this time.
She talked endlessly of getting away
from England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at the hands of the
newspapers. I don't think she ever
understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media, why there
appeared to be a permanent
quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling.
"My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the
opposite end of the moral
spectrum. It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the
greatest was this - a girl given the
name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the
modern age.
"She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William
and Harry from a similar fate
and I do this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that
used regularly to drive you to
tearful despair.
"Blood Family Will Protect Sons"
"And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood
family, will do all we can to
continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so
that their souls are not
simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.
"We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always
respect and encourage them in their
royal role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different
aspects of life as possible to
arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected
nothing less from us.
"William and Harry, we all cared desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with
the sadness at the loss of a
woman who was not even our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot even imagine.
"I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this
dreadful time. For taking Diana at
her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all we give
thanks for the life of a
woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the
extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana
whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds."
