Funeral Poems: Short Classic Poems to Read or Print

A short poem read aloud or printed on the back of the program says what plain words cannot. The poems below were all published before 1929, so they are in the public domain in the United States and you can print them in full. Each has a note on when it fits.

Crossing the Bar

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1889. Sixteen lines, about one minute aloud.

Sunset and evening star,
  And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
  When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
  Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
  Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
  And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
  When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
  The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
  When I have crost the bar.

When it fits: almost any service, religious or not. Especially loved for someone who loved the sea, or who was ready to go.

Remember

Christina Rossetti, 1862. A sonnet, fourteen lines.

Remember me when I am gone away,
  Gone far away into the silent land;
  When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
  You tell me of our future that you planned:
  Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
  And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
  For if the darkness and corruption leave
  A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
  Than that you should remember and be sad.

When it fits: a celebration of life or a non-religious service. The last two lines give people permission to smile, which families often want.

Requiem

Robert Louis Stevenson, 1887. Eight lines.

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.

When it fits: someone who lived outdoors, a veteran of the sea, or a person who met the end calmly. Short enough for a prayer card.

Death, be not proud

John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10, published 1633. The opening and closing lines:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; …
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

When it fits: a service with a strong faith in the resurrection. The full sonnet is fourteen lines and reads well aloud.

Scripture that reads like poetry

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, King James Version: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
• Psalm 23, King James Version: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
• Psalm 121: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”

Newer poems people ask for

“Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” (Mary Elizabeth Frye), “Footprints in the Sand” and “The Dash” (Linda Ellis) are very popular, but they were written after 1929 and may be under copyright. You can name them in the program and read them aloud at the service; printing the full text is the part that needs permission. Funeral homes often have a license.

Reading a poem aloud

• Read it out loud three times before the service. The third time is the one you will sound like.
• Pause at the end of each line that ends with a comma or a period, not at every line break.
• Print it in large type. The eulogy file in our set is laid out at 17 point for this reason.

In the funeral program template, these poems are in the readings list for each tradition and print in full on the program or the prayer card.