Funeral poems in plain English

Readings you can say once and be understood. A few carry an older turn of phrase, but none of them will trip you up at the front of a room.

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18 poems

A Psalm of Life

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838

Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!

2 min

Who's it for

Someone who never sat still and left things behind them: a business, a trade, a houseful of people they taught. Right for a life spent being useful.

A classicPlain EnglishReligiousTraditionalUplifting

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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.

Non-religiousNot about deathOutdoorsyPlain EnglishUplifting

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Death Is Nothing At All

Henry Scott Holland · 1919

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.

2 min

Who's it for

Almost any funeral, and it is the reading most families have already heard. Right for someone whose house was full of easy talk and jokes.

A classicComfortingGentlePlain EnglishReligious

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Death stands above me

Walter Savage Landor · 1853

Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear:

15 sec

Who's it for

A family who do not believe in anything particular and would rather not pretend they do. Right for someone who was not afraid at the end.

ComfortingGentleNon-religiousPeace at lastPlain EnglishStoic

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Dirge Without Music

Edna St. Vincent Millay · 1928

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

1 min

Who's it for

A family who are angry about it and would rather not pretend otherwise. Right for a death that makes no sense to anyone who knew them.

ModernNon-religiousPlain EnglishTear jerkerUnusual

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Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

Mary Elizabeth Frye · 1932

Not shown here, because the poem is still in copyright.

Who's it for

Almost anyone, honestly. It's best of all for someone who was always outside: out walking, in the garden, never in the house.

A classicComfortingGentleModernNon-religiousOutdoorsyPlain English

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Epitaph on an Infant

Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1794

Ere Sin could blight or Sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care;

10 sec

Who's it for

A baby, or a child who died very small. It is right where a family believe their child is somewhere safe and being looked after now.

ComfortingFor a babyFor a childGentleGone too soonPlain EnglishReligious

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For the Fallen

Laurence Binyon · 1914

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old, Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

15 sec

Who's it for

Anyone who served, and especially someone who died young in uniform. Right for a family who want the words everybody in the room will already know.

A classicFor a veteranGone too soonPlain EnglishTraditional

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I strove with none

Walter Savage Landor · 1849

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art;

15 sec

Who's it for

Someone who reached a good age and stayed out of other people's arguments. Right for a person who loved being outdoors or worked with their hands, and was content by the end.

A long lifeNon-religiousOutdoorsyPlain EnglishStoic

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