Funeral reading
Requiem
Robert Louis Stevenson
“Requiem” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a poem read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about 25 seconds 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
Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
Twenty-five seconds, outdoors, no microphone needed. Made for a graveside.
Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: home is the sailor home from the sea · gladly did I live and gladly die · very short · a traveller · a hunter · graveside.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Requiem” take to read aloud?
“Requiem” takes about 25 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 “Requiem”?
Usually the officiant rather than a guest reader. “Requiem” runs about 25 seconds, 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 “Requiem” 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
- On His Books10 secondsHilaire Belloc
- Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep40 secondsAttributed to Mary Elizabeth Frye
- Remember55 secondsChristina Rossetti
- Crossing the Bar55 secondsAlfred, Lord Tennyson
- Invictus55 secondsWilliam Ernest Henley
- Because I could not stop for Deatha minute and a halfEmily Dickinson