Classic poems to read at a funeral

When our own words fall short, poetry lends us its own. These poems and verses have been read at farewells for generations.

Much-loved verses

• Mary Elizabeth Frye, “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep”: “I am not there. I do not sleep. / I am a thousand winds that blow…” Perhaps the most read poem at funerals in the English-speaking world.
• Christina Rossetti, “Remember”: “Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad.” A sonnet that gives the mourner permission to live.
• Henry Scott Holland, “Death Is Nothing at All”: “I have only slipped away into the next room…” Gentle and consoling, a favourite at services of every kind.
• W. H. Auden, “Funeral Blues”: “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone…” For when grief is vast and needs saying out loud.
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Crossing the Bar”: “Sunset and evening star, / And one clear call for me!” — the sea as a serene image of departure.

How to choose

• It should sound like the person. A solemn poem for someone full of laughter strikes the wrong note; there are luminous texts for luminous lives.
• Short, and read slowly. Eight lines well spoken travel further than three pages.
• Try reading it aloud beforehand: some poems are beautiful on paper and impossible with a breaking voice. Have a substitute, or a stand-in reader.

Beyond the funeral

The chosen poem can stay on their memorial for ever, as an epitaph or within their story. And if the person had a favourite poem of their own — then that, without question, is the one to read.