Funeral reading
Death Is Nothing At All
Henry Scott Holland
“Death Is Nothing At All” by Henry Scott Holland is a prose reading read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about two minutes read aloud, usually by the officiant. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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!
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
Where it comes from
While at St Paul’s Cathedral, Henry Scott Holland preached a sermon in May 1910 after the death of King Edward VII, titled Death the King of Terrors, and this passage comes from it. The sermon was collected in Holland’s Facts of the Faith, printed in 1919.
What it says
The voice is the person who has died, talking to the people left behind. Death, it says, is only a step into the next room; nothing between us has changed. Then come the instructions: use my old name, talk about me the easy way you always did, keep laughing at our jokes, do not put on a solemn voice. The last paragraph promises that the speaker is waiting just round the corner, and that one day the two of you will laugh at how hard the parting felt. In the sermon Holland sets this view against the dread of death and weighs the two; read on its own, it becomes pure reassurance.
From a 1910 sermon, in his own words rather than the version that circulates. Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: I have only slipped away into the next room · call me by my old familiar name · gentle · a long marriage · an expected death · the most requested funeral reading.
Who it suits
The death of someone who was loved in an everyday, household way: a parent, a grandparent, a husband or wife after a long marriage. It works best where the death was expected and the family are already saying they want laughter at the service. It suits Christian and non-religious families alike, since the only prayer in it is a single request to be prayed for. It is less suited to a sudden or violent death, where “nothing has happened” can sound like a denial of what the family are living through.
Where it goes in the ceremony
Often the first reading, or the reading just before the eulogy, so the eulogy can pick up the invitation to tell the funny stories. A grandchild, a sibling or a close friend usually reads it, and it works in the officiant’s voice too.
Reading it aloud
The text on this page is 228 words. At a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, which is slower than conversation, that comes to about two minutes of reading.
- It is written in the first person as the dead speaking. Read it plainly, in your own voice, without acting it; the words do the impersonation for you.
- The short sentences at the top (“It does not count.” “Nothing has happened.”) need a full stop’s pause each. Rushing them turns the passage into a list.
- Copies found online often change the wording. If the family bring their own printout, agree beforehand which version is read so the printed order of service matches.
- The final line about laughing when we meet again is the one people remember. Look up for it, and smile if you can.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Death Is Nothing At All” take to read aloud?
“Death Is Nothing At All” takes about two minutes 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 “Death Is Nothing At All”?
Usually the officiant rather than a guest reader. “Death Is Nothing At All” runs about two minutes, which sits inside the part of the service the officiant is already leading, and keeping it there means it is carried by the person who has rehearsed it.
Can “Death Is Nothing At All” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
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
- Gone From My Sight — the shipa minute and a halfAnother short prose piece that says the person is not gone, only out of sight
- Remember55 secondsAlso gives the family permission to be happy again
- Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep40 secondsThe other most-requested reading in the dead person’s voice
- No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)40 secondsJohn Donne
- On Death, from The Prophet55 secondsKahlil Gibran
- The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph30 secondsBenjamin Franklin