Funeral reading
Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"
Jenny Joseph
“Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"” by Jenny Joseph is a poem read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about a minute and a half 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 — Joseph died in 2018 and it was first published in The Listener in 1961. Print it from a licensed collection. Read it to the family first: it is a young woman imagining the freedoms of old age, not a poem about death or about the person who has died, and families who only know the first line are sometimes surprised by the rest.
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
Beloved and frequently misremembered — it is about old age, not dying. Read the family the whole thing first.
Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: when I am an old woman I shall wear purple · a woman who did as she pleased · not actually about death · often requested from the first line alone · irreverent · famous.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"” take to read aloud?
“Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"” takes about a minute and a half 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 “Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"” runs about a minute and a half, 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 “Warning — "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"” 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 — Joseph died in 2018 and it was first published in The Listener in 1961. Print it from a licensed collection. Read it to the family first: it is a young woman imagining the freedoms of old age, not a poem about death or about the person who has died, and families who only know the first line are sometimes surprised by the rest.
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.