Funeral readings
Poems for a funeral or memorial service
The funeral poems out of copyright, and therefore printable in a service script, include Christina Rossetti’s “Remember”, Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”, Stevenson’s “Requiem”, Henry Scott Holland’s “Death Is Nothing At All”, and Emily Dickinson. Most run between forty seconds and two minutes read aloud.
The best-known modern funeral poems — Auden, Frye, Teasdale’s later work — are still in copyright. They are listed here by title and author with a note on where to find them, because naming them is useful even when reprinting them is not lawful.
A poem read by a family member is usually the hardest two minutes of the service for the person reading it. Give them their own printed copy, in a size they can read without their glasses, and agree in advance who steps in if they cannot finish.
26 poems for a funeral or memorial service, 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.
- 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
- 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 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
- 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 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
- 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.
- 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.
Questions
Poems for a funeral or memorial service: what is usually chosen?
The funeral poems out of copyright, and therefore printable in a service script, include Christina Rossetti’s “Remember”, Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”, Stevenson’s “Requiem”, Henry Scott Holland’s “Death Is Nothing At All”, and Emily Dickinson. Most run between forty seconds and two minutes read aloud.
Which of these can be printed in the script?
14 of the 26 readings on this page carry their full text on their own page, so they can go straight into a ceremony script or an order of service. 12 are still in copyright: we name them with their author and point you at a copy rather than reprinting the words.
Texts last checked .
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.