Funeral readings
Non-religious funeral readings
A non-religious funeral reading carries no scripture, no prayer and no religious framing, which leaves poetry about memory and continuity, prose about a life, and passages that treat death as an ending rather than a passage. They suit a celebration of life, a humanist service, or a family with no church.
A secular service still needs shape. These readings do the work the liturgy would otherwise do — marking the opening, holding the silence, and giving the room something to leave on.
Several of these come from religious writers and still land as entirely secular read aloud. The list is filtered on how a passage works in the room, not on its origin.
41 non-religious funeral readings, shortest first
- 10 secondsMy Own EpitaphJohn Gay · Ten seconds, and he wrote it about himself. A line to close on, not a piece to build a service around.
- 10 secondsOn His BooksHilaire Belloc · One pun, two lines, for someone who lived among books. A line to close on, not a piece to build a service around.
- 20 secondsMay the Road Rise Up to Meet YouTraditional Irish · Ends warm and ends fast. Works at both a wedding and a funeral.
- 25 secondsRequiemRobert Louis Stevenson · Twenty-five seconds, outdoors, no microphone needed. Made for a graveside.
- 25 secondsThere Will Be RestSara Teasdale · Very quiet and very short. Bring a printed copy — the words are not in your script.Reader brings a copy
- 25 secondsThe Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaphBenjamin Franklin · A mock epitaph he wrote for himself as a young man — it is not on his actual gravestone, and say so if you use it. Twenty-five seconds.
- 25 secondsDeep Peace (from the Invocation of Peace)Fiona Macleod (William Sharp) · Barely religious, deeply calming. The real Gaelic-revival poem, not the choral version.
- 30 secondsRuth 1:16–17aKing James Bible · Said between two women, and the most quoted promise in scripture.
- 30 secondsWords of Committal — no religious framingOfficiantScript · Ours, for a burial with no religious content. Swap "the earth" for cremation.
- 30 secondsA Closing, with no prayerOfficiantScript · Ours. Closes a service without a blessing, and gives the room a job.
- 30 secondsAfterglow — "I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one"Helen Lowrie Marshall · Gentle and short. Suits a service the family want kept light.Reader brings a copy
- 30 secondsIf I Should Go Before the Rest of YouJoyce Grenfell · The permission-not-to-be-sad poem. Wry rather than funny, and it steadies a room early on.Reader brings a copy
- 35 secondsNo Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)John Donne · For someone whose death took something out of a whole community.
- 35 secondsShe Is Gone / Remember MeDavid Harkins · The "you can shed tears, or you can smile" one. Often misattributed.Reader brings a copy
- 40 secondsDo Not Stand at My Grave and WeepAttributed to Mary Elizabeth Frye · Everyone knows it. Check which wording the family means — several are in circulation.Reader brings a copy
- 40 secondsRumi, on death and reunionJalāl al-Dīn Rūmī · Ask which translation — the popular ones are very loose.Reader brings a copy
- 50 secondsEcclesiastes 3:1–8King James Bible · Reads as well at a secular service as a religious one. Everyone knows it.
- 50 secondsOn Death, from The ProphetKahlil Gibran · Claims no particular afterlife, which is why it works for a mixed-faith room.
- 50 secondsMake Me an Instrument of Your PeaceAttributed to St Francis of Assisi · First printed in 1912 and not actually by St Francis — but it is the one people want.
- 55 secondsRememberChristina Rossetti · Ends by giving the family permission to be happy again. That is why it lands.
- 55 secondsCrossing the BarAlfred, Lord Tennyson · Tennyson asked for this to be printed last in every collection of his work.
- 55 secondsInvictusWilliam Ernest Henley · Written from a hospital bed. For someone who did not go quietly.
- 55 secondsDeath Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)John Donne · Speaks straight at death and tells it off. Pairs with Romans 8.
- 55 secondsNo Coward Soul Is MineEmily Brontë · Believing but unchurched. Good for someone who had faith but no congregation.
- a minute and a halfA Psalm of Life — selected stanzasHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · Aimed at the living rather than the dead. Ends on getting back to work.
- a minute and a halfFuneral Blues — "Stop all the clocks"W. H. Auden · The most requested modern funeral poem, and the hardest to get through.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfDo Not Go Gentle Into That Good NightDylan Thomas · Right for a fighter. Wrong for a peaceful death — read it before you offer it.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfThe DashLinda Ellis · Widely used and actively licensed. Get permission before you print a word of it.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfGone From My Sight — the shipAttributed to Luther F. Beecher; widely printed as Henry Van Dyke · The ship one, used constantly in hospice work. Reads well in a plain voice.
- a minute and a halfBecause I could not stop for DeathEmily Dickinson · Calm rather than comforting. For a reader who will not rush the dashes.
- a minute and a halfDirge Without MusicEdna St. Vincent Millay · Offers no comfort at all, on purpose. The right poem for an unfair death.
- a minute and a halfAh, Are You Digging on My Grave?Thomas Hardy · Gets funnier and colder until the punchline, which is that nobody remembers her. A personality match for a wicked, self-deprecating sense of humour — not a crowd-pleaser.
- a minute and a halfWarning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"Jenny Joseph · Beloved and frequently misremembered — it is about old age, not dying. Read the family the whole thing first.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfWoodland BurialPam Ayres · Warmly wry rather than laugh-out-loud — say so, if the family asked for something funny.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfDeath Is Nothing At AllHenry Scott Holland · From a 1910 sermon, in his own words rather than the version that circulates.
- two minutesLet Me Die a Youngman's DeathRoger McGough · Rude, energetic, and against dying quietly. Wrong for a peaceful death in old age.Reader brings a copy
- 3 minutesThe Deacon's Masterpiece, or The One-Hoss Shay — selected stanzasOliver Wendell Holmes · A carriage built so well it lasted a hundred years and then went all at once — an allegory for a long, full life that ended suddenly. It lands wrong after a long illness or a slow decline.
- 4 minutesA recorded songThe family’s choice · For anything modern. Add the title, and the run-sheet gives it a cue and a slot.Reader brings a copy
- 4 minutesA live performanceA family member or musician · Someone performing live. Plan for the possibility they cannot get through it.Reader brings a copy
- 5 minutesThe Cremation of Sam McGeeRobert W. Service · Five minutes, and it needs a confident storyteller — it dies in a nervous voice. Think hard before offering it if the deceased was actually cremated.
- 8 minutesMusic as people arriveThe venue · You say nothing. It is on the run-sheet so the clock tells the truth.Reader brings a copy
Questions
Non-religious funeral readings: what is usually chosen?
A non-religious funeral reading carries no scripture, no prayer and no religious framing, which leaves poetry about memory and continuity, prose about a life, and passages that treat death as an ending rather than a passage. They suit a celebration of life, a humanist service, or a family with no church.
Which of these can be printed in the script?
26 of the 41 readings on this page are public domain, so their full text is printed on this site and can go into a ceremony script or an order of service. The rest are named with their author and a note on where to get a copy — we do not reproduce text that is still in copyright.
Texts last checked 2026-07-25.
The reading is two minutes. The service is the rest of it.
Answer some questions about them and get the whole service written out — the welcome, the account of their life, the remembrances, the committal — with your chosen readings in place and a run-sheet that knows how long each one takes.
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