Religious funeral poems

Poems that speak of God, of heaven, or of being kept safe. They suit a church service, and a family for whom faith was part of who the person was.

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9 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.

UpliftingA classicPlain EnglishReligiousTraditional

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Crossing the Bar

Alfred, Lord Tennyson · 1889

Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me!

45 sec

Who's it for

Someone who had a long life and was ready. Especially right for anyone who went to sea, or just loved being near it.

ReligiousTraditionalA classicComfortingGentleOutdoorsyA long lifePeace at last

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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.

ComfortingGentlePlain EnglishA classicReligious

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Death, be not proud

John Donne · 1633

Death, be not proud, though some have callèd thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:

55 sec

Who's it for

A believer, and a family who want something with some fight in it rather than a quiet goodbye. It suits a person who argued back all their life.

A classicReligiousUpliftingStoicUnusual

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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.

For a babyFor a childGone too soonReligiousComfortingGentlePlain English

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No coward soul is mine

Emily Brontë · 1850

No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:

1 min

Who's it for

A person whose faith was entirely their own and who had no time for churches. Right for someone nobody could frighten.

StoicUpliftingReligiousUnusual

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Prospice

Robert Browning · 1864

Fear death?--to feel the fog in my throat, The mist in my face,

2 min

Who's it for

Someone who fought their illness all the way and wanted to know exactly what was happening. Also right for a person going back to a husband or wife who died first.

Fought to the endStoicUpliftingReligiousFor a partner

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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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When I go from hence

Rabindranath Tagore · 1912

When I go from hence let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable. I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus am I blessed—let this be my parting word.

45 sec

Who's it for

Someone grateful and curious, who found something holy without needing a church for it. Right for a person who reckoned they had had the better of the bargain.

UpliftingReligiousA long lifeComfortingUnusual

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