Popular Funeral Verses and Poems

I am standing on the sea shore. A ship sails and spreads her
white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at
last she fades on the horizon, and someone at my side says:
‘She is gone.’ Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all;
she is just as large in the masts, hull a spars as she was
when I saw her, and just as able to bear her load of living
freight to its destination.

 

The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not her;
and just at the moment when someone at my side says;
‘She’s gone’ there are others who are watching her coming
and other voices take up a gland shout,
‘There she comes’, and that is dying.

God looked around His garden
And He found an empty place.
He then looked down upon this earth
And saw your tired face.
He put His arms around you
And lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful;
He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering.
He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never
Get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough,
And the hills were hard to climb.
So He closed your weary eyelids,
And whispered “Peace be thine”.
It broke our heart to lose you,
But you did not go alone.
For part of us went with you
The day God called you home.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rain fall softly upon your fields until we meet again,
And may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

They do not leave
They are not gone.
They look upon us still
They walk among the valleys now.
They stride upon the hill
Their smile is in the summer sky.
Their grace is in the breeze
Their memories whisper in the grass,
Their calm is in the trees.
Their light is in the winter snow
Their tears are in the rain.
Their merriment runs in the brook
Their laughter in the lane.
Their gentleness is in the flowers
They sigh in Autumn leaves.
They do not leave, they are not gone
Tis only we who grieve.

We seem to give them back to Thee, O God who gavest them to us.
Yet as Thou didst not lose them in giving,
So do we not lose them by their return.
Not as the world giveth, givest Thou O Lover of souls.
What Thou givest Thou takest not away,
For what is Thine is ours also if we are thine.
And life is eternal and love is immortal,
And death is only an horizon,
And an horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.

 

Lift us up, strong Son of God that we may see further;
Cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly;
Draw us closer to Thyself
That we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who are with Thee.
And while Thou dost prepare a place for us, prepare us also for that happy place,
That where Thou art we may be also for evermore.

I took up a handful of grain and let it slip flowing through my fingers,
and I said to myself:

 

This is what it is all about.
There is no longer any room for pretence.
At harvest time the essence is revealed - the straw
and chaff are set aside, they have done their job.
The grain alone matters - sacks of pure gold.

So it is when a person dies the essence of that person is revealed.
At the moment of death a person’s character stands out
happy for the person who has forged it well over the years.
Then it will not be the great achievement that will matter,
nor, how much money or possessions a person has amassed.
These like the straw and the chaff, will be left behind.
It is what he has made of himself that will matter.
Death can take away from us what we have,
but it cannot rob us of who we are.

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

 

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

 

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

 

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

 

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

 

All is well.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

If I should die and leave you here a while,
be not like others sore undone,
who keep long vigil by the silent dust.
For my sake turn again to life and smile,
nerving thy heart and trembling hand
to do something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine
and I perchance may therein comfort you.

Not how did he die, but how did he live?
Not what did he gain, but what did he give?

 

These are the units to measure the worth
Of a man as a man, regardless of birth.

 

Not, what was his church, nor what was his creed?
But had he befriended those really in need?

 

Was he ever ready, with word of good cheer,
To bring back a smile, to banish a tear?

 

Not what did the sketch in the newspaper say,
But how many were sorry when he passed away.

Our memories build a special bridge
When loved ones have to part
To help us feel we're with them still
And soothe a grieving heart.
They span the years and warm our lives
Preserving ties that bind;
Our memories build a special bridge
And bring us peace of mind.

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.

There is no night without a dawning
No winter without a spring
And beyond the dark horizon
Our hearts will once more sing . . .
For those who leave us for a while
Have only gone away
Out of a restless, care worn world
Into a brighter day.