Funeral Readings And Poems

A selection of readings and poems

• Look Ye Also While Life Lasts "Denys Watkins-Pitchford".

  The Wonder of the World, The Beauty and the Power, The Shapes of Things, Their Colours Lights and Shades, These I Saw, Look Ye Also While Life Lasts.

• Loneliness By Brendan Behan

   Loneliness

  The taste of blackberries
  After the rain
  On top of the hill

  In the silence of a prison
  The train’s cold whistle

  The excited whispering of lovers
  To the lonely

• Miss me but let me go By Christina Rossetti

  Christina Rossetti penned many beautiful poems about life and death. Unlike many others of the era, she offered a rare perspective into the woman’s point of view on loss – and her message to her beloved provides a few gentle word of comfort to those in mourning.

  Miss me but let me go

  When I come to the end of the road
  And the sun has set for me
  I want no rites in a gloom filled room
  Why cry for a soul set free?

  Miss me a little, but not for long
  And not with your head bowed low
  Remember the love that once we shared
  Miss me, but let me go.

  For this is a journey we all must take
  And each must go alone.
  It's all part of the master plan
  A step on the road to home.

  When you are lonely and sick at heart
  Go the friends we know.
  Laugh at all the things we used to do
  Miss me, but let me go.

  When I am dead my dearest
  Sing no sad songs for me
  Plant thou no roses at my head
  Nor shady cypress tree

  Be the green grass above me
  With showers and dewdrops wet
  And if thou wilt remember
  And if thou wilt, forget.

  I shall not see the shadows,
  I shall not fear the rain;
  I shall not hear the nightingale
  Sing on as if in pain;

  And dreaming through the twilight
  That doth not rise nor set,
  Haply I may remember,
  And haply may forget.

• Funeral Blues By W. H. Auden

  Made famous in Four Weddings & A Funeral, this poem offers a heartfelt portrait of the totality of love, the devastating consequences of its absence, and an emotional, intimate insight into what it feels like to grieve for someone special.

  Funeral Blues

  Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
  Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
  Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
  Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

  Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
  Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
  Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
  Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

  He was my North, my South, my East and West,
  My working week and my Sunday rest,
  My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
  I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

  The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
  Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
  Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
  For nothing now can ever come to any good.

• Crossing the bar By Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Crossing the bar

  Sunset and evening star,
  And one clear call for me!
  And may there be no moaning of the bar,
  When I put out to sea,

  But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
  Too full for sound and foam,
  When that which drew from out the boundless deep
  Turns again home.

  Twilight and evening bell,
  And after that the dark!
  And may there be no sadness of farewell,
  When I embark;

  For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
  The flood may bear me far,
  I hope to see my Pilot face to face
  When I have crost the bar.

• Do not stand at my grave and weep By Mary Elizabeth Fry

  Do not stand at my grave and weep

  Do not stand at my grave and weep
  I am not there. I do not sleep.
  I am a thousand winds that blow.
  I am the diamond glints on snow.

  I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
  I am the gentle autumn rain.
  When you awaken in the morning's hush
  I am the swift uplifting rush

  Of quiet birds in circled flight.
  I am the soft stars that shine at night.
  Do not stand at my grave and cry;
  I am not there. I did not die.

• The road less travelled By Robert Frost

  The road less travelled

  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
  And sorry I could not travel both
  And be one traveler, long I stood
  And looked down one as far as I could
  To where it bent in the undergrowth;
  Then took the other, as just as fair,
  And having perhaps the better claim,
  Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
  Though as for that the passing there
  Had worn them really about the same,
  And both that morning equally lay
  In leaves no step had trodden black.
  Oh, I kept the first for another day!
  Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
  I doubted if I should ever come back.
  I shall be telling this with a sigh
  Somewhere ages and ages hence:
  Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
  I took the one less travelled by,
  And that has made all the difference.

• The Parting Glass author unknown/Traditional Irish

  The Parting Glass

  Of all the money that e’er I spent
  I’ve spent it in good company
  And all the harm that ever I did
  Alas it was to none but me
  And all I've done for want of wit
  To memory now I can’t recall
  So fill to me the parting glass
  Good night and joy be with you all

  If I had money enough to spend
  And leisure time to sit awhile
  There is a fair maid in the town
  That sorely has my heart beguiled
  Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips
  I own she has my heart enthralled
  So fill to me the parting glass
  Good night and joy be with you all

  Oh, all the comrades that e’er I had
  They’re sorry for my going away
  And all the sweethearts that e’er I had
  They’d wish me one more day to stay
  But since it falls unto my lot
  That I should rise and you should not
  I'll gently rise and softly call
  Good night and joy be with you all

• I am standing at the seashore By Henry Van Dyke

  I am standing at the seashore

  I am standing upon the seashore.
  A ship at my side spreads her white
  sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.

  She is an object of beauty and strength.
  I stand and watch her until at length
  she hangs like a speck of white cloud
  just where the sea and sky come
  to mingle with each other.

  Then, someone at my side says;
  "There, she is gone!"

  "Gone where?"
  Gone from my sight. That is all.
  She is just as large in mast and hull
  and spar as she was when she left my side
  and she is just as able to bear her
  load of living freight to her destined port.
  Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

  And just at the moment when someone
  at my side says, "There, she is gone!"
  There are other eyes watching her coming,
  and other voices ready to take up the glad shout;
  "Here she comes!"
  And that is dying.

• Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night By Dylan Thomas

  An extract from Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

  Do not go gentle into that good night,
  Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

  Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
  Because their words had forked no lightning they
  Do not go gentle into that good night.

• Death Is Nothing At All/ All is Well  By Henry Scott Holland

  Henry Scott Holland’s piece does not shy away from the fact that death is real, and that, yes, it separates us from those we love. However it also emphasises that, if the love between you and that person was real, then it will always stay with you and change your own way of living. More importantly, while the opportunity to make new memories with someone who has passed is gone, you can still make a new life and build separate memories based on what you learned from them in the past.

  Death Is Nothing At All/ All is Well

  Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

  Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

  Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before.

  How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

• Afterglow By Helen Lowrie Marshall

  Afterglow

  I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
  I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
  I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,
  Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.
  I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun;
  Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.

• You can shed tears that he is gone By David Harkins

   You can shed tears that he is gone

  You can shed tears that he is gone
  Or you can smile because he has lived

  You can close your eyes and pray that he will come back
  Or you can open your eyes and see all that he has left

  Your heart can be empty because you can’t see him
  Or you can be full of the love that you shared

  You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
  Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday

  You can remember him and only that he is gone
  Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on

  You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
  Or you can do what he would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

• An extract from Winnie the Pooh  By AA Milne

  There has never been a children’s book that has provided us with quite as many soulful, inspiring, and life-affirming quotes as Winnie The Pooh – and the softly spoken bear did not let us down when it came to discussing loss, heartache, and goodbyes.

  An extract from Winnie The Pooh

  If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember.

  You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.

• Native American poem By Anonymous

  This poem remains untitled and unclaimed by any author, but this simple Native American verse offers comfort to those in mourning, and reminds us that a person’s spirit can never die. If we hold them in our hearts, they can remain with us each and every day of our lives, be it in the sound of a bird’s song, the sight of sunlight on ripened grain, or in the breath of the wind.

  Native American Poem

  I give you this one thought to keep.
  I am with you still. I do not sleep.

  I am a thousand winds that blow.
  I am the diamond glints on the snow.
  I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
  I am the gentle autumn rain.

  When you awaken in the morning’s hush,
  I am the swift, uplifting rush
  of quiet birds in circled flight.
  I am the soft stars that shine at night.

  Do not think of me as gone.
  I am with you still in each new dawn.

• Remember Me By Margaret Mead

  Remember Me

  To the living, I am gone,
  To the sorrowful, I will never return,
  To the angry, I was cheated,
  But to the happy, I am at peace,
  And to the faithful, I have never left.

  I cannot speak, but I can listen.
  I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
  So as you stand upon a shore gazing at a beautiful sea,
  As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity,
  Remember me.

  Remember me in your heart:
  Your thoughts, and your memories,
  Of the times we loved,
  The times we cried,
  The times we fought,
  The times we laughed.
  For if you always.

• If I should go tomorrow Anonymous

  If I should go tomorrow

  If I should go tomorrow
  It would never be goodbye,
  For I have left my heart with you,
  So don’t you ever cry.

  The love that’s deep within me,
  Shall reach you from the stars,
  You’ll feel it from the heavens,
  And it will heal the scars.

• Epitaph By Merrit Malloy

  Epitaph

  When I die
  Give what’s left of me away
  To children
  And old men that wait to die.

  And if you need to cry,
  Cry for your brother
  Walking the street beside you.
  And when you need me,
  Put your arms
  Around anyone
  And give them
  What you need to give to me.

  I want to leave you something,
  Something better
  Than words
  Or sounds.

  Look for me
  In the people I’ve known
  Or loved,
  And if you cannot give me away,
  At least let me live on in your eyes
  And not your mind.

  You can love me most
  By letting
  Hands touch hands,
  By letting bodies touch bodies,
  And by letting go
  Of children
  That need to be free.

  Love doesn’t die,
  People do.
  So, when all that’s left of me
  Is love,
  Give me away.

• There is a time Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

  Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…

• Intimations of Immortality By William Wordsworth

  Intimations of Immortality

  By William Wordsworth

  This bereavement poem is one which aims to lift the sorrows of mourners, and remind them that death does not have to be the end.

  Intimations of Immortality

  What though the radiance which was once so bright~
  Be now forever taken from my sight,
  Though nothing can bring back the hour
  Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
  We will grieve not, rather find
  Strength in what remains behind.