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Funeral poems or memorial verses are a common part of a funeral service. When it’s so hard to express your loss in your own words, beautiful poetry from famous writers can convey what it feels like to say goodbye.
Be inspired with these 10 beautiful poems for funerals, or browse a collection of funeral poems for more ideas.
1. Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
“Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.”
This uplifting bereavement poem was written by Mary Elizabeth Frye in the 1930s. It declares that the people you love are not gone, they are all around you.
2. She is Gone
“You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived.”
This short verse is a popular funeral poem, based on a prose poem by David Harkins. It’s about being grateful for time spent with a loved one.
3. Farewell My Friends
“Farewell, my friends.
It was beautiful
As long as it lasted,
The journey of my life.”
Writer and musician Rabindranath Tagore penned this beautiful funeral verse giving thanks for a life well-lived. It would make a touching tribute to a special person who embraced life.
4. Afterglow
“I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.”
This short remembrance poem by Helen Lowrie Marshall is about how you’d like to be remembered after you are gone. It’s an ideal eulogy poem for someone who has given you happy memories, love and joy.
5. Let Me Go
“When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?”
Famous 19th Century poet Christina Rossetti wrote many different poems about death and grief, but perhaps none more beautiful than this short memorial verse. With a message of hope, this funeral poem would be ideal for a celebration of life.
6. My Journey’s Just Begun
“Don’t think of me as gone away,
My journey’s just begun.
Life holds so many facets,
This earth is but one.”
This short funeral poem by Ellen Brenneman is an uplifting verse about life after death. Although not explicitly Christian, it does convey a sense of peace in another place after death, making it appropriate for someone who was spiritual, but not necessarily of a particular faith.
7. To Those Whom I Love and Those Who Love Me
“When I am gone, release me, let me go.
I have so many things to see and do,
You mustn’t tie yourself to me with too many tears,
But be thankful we had so many good years.”
This funeral poem acknowledges the need to say goodbye to a loved one, letting them go and learning to live without them – but it also offers the comfort that love lives on in your heart.
8. Remember Me – I Will Live Forever
“Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.”
Robert Test penned this modern remembrance poem as a eulogy for someone whose organs or tissue has been donated after their death. It’s about passing on the gift of life to someone else and being grateful for your time on earth.
9. All is Well
“Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.”
This memorial verse would make an ideal poem for funeral. Written by Henry Scott Holland, this comforting poem is about love living on after the death of a loved one.
10. A Song of Living
“Because I have loved life,
I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings,
To be lost in the blue of the sky.”
This short funeral verse was penned by Amelia Josephine Burr. It’s about making the most of life and having no regrets when your life comes to the end.
Browse more funeral poems to read at a loved one’s funeral.
