Dog-loving teacher pens beautiful tribute to the Queen

After learning of the sad news of Her Majesty The Queen's death, school teacher Emily Cassinelli combined her love of poetry and dogs to pen her own special tribute.

The 27-year-old from Stalybridge has written poems since she was a young girl and has a folder with all of her work in from over the years but has never really shared them.

“It’s like a secret hobby that nobody knows about,” she said.

“I usually write about things that have happened in my life, like when my grandad died. But when I heard about the Queen, I thought I had to write one about her. It didn’t take me long at all, I just sat down and the words just seemed to come to me.

“I posted the poem on Facebook and have received some lovely comments which has been really nice.”

The Queen’s perpetual love of corgis is no secret so Emily, who has two dogs - a labrador called Luna and a cocker spaniel called Lenny - herself, thought it would be the perfect theme for her poem - entitled ‘We are the Queen’s corgis’.

Emily's dogs Lenny and Luna 

“I kept thinking what the corgis are going to think now the Queen has gone. I wanted to get across in the poem that she wasn’t just the Queen, she was a mum to the corgis too and they will be missing her.”

Emily, who has been teaching at Greenfield Primary School in Oldham for six years, said she felt distraught when she found out the Queen had passed away whilst watching the news and it’s been challenging to educate the five and six-year-olds in her Year 1 class about a monumental moment in our country’s history.

“It’s naturally been a strange time in school and difficult to know how best to approach it with the children,” Emily explained. “But we’ve just been doing activities which celebrate the life of the Queen and happy things like drawing Buckingham Palace with rainbows over it which has been nice.”

With schools closed on Monday for a bank holiday, Emily will join millions of people around the world in watching the Queen’s state funeral - which will be an occasion like no other as we say a final farewell to the UK’s longest-serving monarch.

You can read Emily’s beautiful poem here:

WE ARE THE QUEEN’S CORGIS

We are the Queen’s corgis,

And with a heavy heart we say,

Our beautiful Queen Elizabeth,

Has sadly passed away.

She was our chief and ruler,

But to us she was Mum,

Our family and our home,

And now she has gone.

Her face would light up,

When we’d jump on her knee,

We took it in turns,

There were too many of us you see.

Sometimes she had to leave,

And she’d wave from the car,

“I’ll be back soon” she’d say,

“I’m not going too far”.

“She’s gone ruling the country,”

Our butler would smile,

“Don’t worry little corgis,”

“She’ll be back in a while”.

And when she returned,

We’d hear her come inside,

And our excited waggy tails,

We could never hide.

She’d stroke our fur,

And chatter away,

Telling us all sorts,

About what she’d done that day.

Elizabeth was our constant,

We never imagined the day would come,

When we woke and she’d gone for good,

And we had to say goodbye to Mum.

She was always so beautiful,

Especially wearing her crown,

But our favourite memories involve cuddles,

When she was in her dressing gown.  

“A nice cup of tea” she’d said,

And snuggles by the fire,

We fell asleep listening to her heartbeat,

And watching the flames get higher.

Then suddenly we felt a shiver,

And something made us wake,

And right then in that moment,

Her last breath she did take.

We watched her slip away,

With family by her side,

Our beautiful Queen and Mummy,

Had very sadly died.

But we know she’s with Dad now,

And no longer in pain,

We know it won’t be long,

Until we see her again.

We have to be strong now,

And take care of the rest,

With cuddles and love,

She taught us best.

We are the Queen’s corgis,

And we’re incredibly proud,

The Queen was our Mum,

And we bark it out loud.