Funeral reading
If I Should Go Before the Rest of You
Joyce Grenfell
“If I Should Go Before the Rest of You” by Joyce Grenfell is a poem read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about 30 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is still in copyright, so the words are not reprinted here — the reader brings a printed copy.
Why the words are not printed here
Still in copyright. It is in her memoir In Pleasant Places (1979) and in the collected verse — print it from one of those. It is eight lines; give the reader the page rather than a phone.
Pieces still in copyright are listed by title and author only — we name them and tell you where to get them, but we do not reproduce the words. Public-domain text is printed in your script in full.
What it is about
The permission-not-to-be-sad poem. Wry rather than funny, and it steadies a room early on.
Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: if I should go before the rest of you · permission not to be sad · weep not for me but be glad · a cheerful person · a short reading to open with · gentle rather than funny.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “If I Should Go Before the Rest of You” take to read aloud?
“If I Should Go Before the Rest of You” takes about 30 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “If I Should Go Before the Rest of You”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “If I Should Go Before the Rest of You” runs about 30 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “If I Should Go Before the Rest of You” be printed in a ceremony script?
Not by us. It is still in copyright, so we name it and point you at a copy rather than reprinting the words. Still in copyright. It is in her memoir In Pleasant Places (1979) and in the collected verse — print it from one of those. It is eight lines; give the reader the page rather than a phone.
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the life, the remembrances, the committal — and knowing what comes next. Answer some questions about them and get the whole service, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Afterglow — "I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one"30 secondsHelen Lowrie Marshall
- Remember55 secondsChristina Rossetti
- Requiem25 secondsRobert Louis Stevenson
- Crossing the Bar55 secondsAlfred, Lord Tennyson
- Invictus55 secondsWilliam Ernest Henley
- Because I could not stop for Deatha minute and a halfEmily Dickinson