The Gate of the Year (originally titled 'God Knows')
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.' And he replied: 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.'
What it is
King George VI quoted this poem in his Christmas Day radio broadcast of 1939, the first wartime Christmas of the Second World War, having received it from Princess Elizabeth, then aged thirteen. The words are inscribed on a plaque at the entrance to the George VI Memorial Chapel in St George's Chapel, Windsor, where the King is interred, placed there by Queen Elizabeth II as a personal memorial tribute. The poem was read again at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002, cementing its place as a distinctive expression of Windsor devotional sensibility across three generations.
Why it still matters
Its call to place one's hand in God's rather than seeking a self-sufficient light is a genuine act of surrender in prayer; it continues to be used in Christian funeral services, New Year services, and times of national or personal uncertainty.
Kept alongside
Book of Common Prayer — Queen Victoria's Wedding and Windsor Chapel Copies
The Royal Collection Trust holds two documented personal copies of the Book of Common Prayer belonging to Queen Victoria. The first was given by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, on her wedding day (10 February 1840), inscribed 'Given To my beloved Victoria on her Wedding Day by Her most affectionate Mother,' with Victoria's monogram on the binding and a gold VICTORIA bookmark set with gemstones. The second was used in the private chapel at Windsor Castle, stamped with the cipher VR (Victoria Regina). Victoria attended chapel regularly throughout her life, and the BCP ordered her family's Sunday worship — a practice continued without interruption under every subsequent Windsor monarch.
Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England
Common Worship
The Church of England's modern liturgical book series, authorized from 2000 as an alternative to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, encompassing Morning and Evening Prayer, Holy Communion, and occasional offices. It contains prayers for the sovereign and royal family that were updated by Royal Warrant following the accession of King Charles III, and its 2024 edition specifically incorporated updated royal prayers throughout. As the standard service book at St George's Chapel Windsor and all Church of England churches, it governs the worship life of the Windsor family and is used at coronations, royal weddings, and funerals.
In Memoriam A.H.H.
After Prince Albert's death in December 1861, Queen Victoria recorded in her journal that she was 'much soothed and pleased' by In Memoriam and cited it as habitual reading in her bereavement; the Duke of Argyll informed Tennyson that the Queen found certain passages 'specially soothing.' Victoria met Tennyson personally in April 1862 and again on 7 August 1883, telling him directly of the poem's comfort to her. Though written as a private elegy for Tennyson's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, Victoria used it as a devotional text, embodying the Victorian practice of finding theological consolation — on resurrection, faith, and providence — within literary rather than strictly ecclesial forms.