Funeral poems that aren't about death

Readings that never mention dying at all. They suit a service that is meant to be about a life, for a family who would rather not say the word out loud.

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4 poems

Barter

Sara Teasdale · 1917

Life has loveliness to sell, All beautiful and splendid things,

50 sec

Who's it for

A person who got a lot out of being alive: weather, music, food, their children's faces. Right where a family want the funeral to be about the living they did.

UpliftingNot about deathOutdoorsyPlain EnglishNon-religious

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Hope is the thing with feathers

Emily Dickinson · 1891

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul,

30 sec

Who's it for

Someone who stayed hopeful without ever making a show of it, and kept other people going by it.

ComfortingUpliftingNot about deathA classic

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If—

Rudyard Kipling · 1910

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

2 min

Who's it for

Someone who got on with things, kept their temper, and didn’t make a fuss when life went against them. The sort of person other people steadied themselves against.

StoicA classicTraditionalFor a fatherNot about death

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Trees

Joyce Kilmer · 1913

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

35 sec

Who's it for

A gardener, a farmer, or anyone who planted things that are still growing. It also fits a believer who found God outdoors rather than indoors.

Not about deathOutdoorsyReligiousPlain EnglishGentleA classic

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