There are a lot of touching and memorable free funeral poems available that can be incorporated into a funeral service. Funeral poems add a nice touch to a funeral and are appreciated by everyone in attendance. Choose a funeral poem that describes your relationship with your loved one or that expresses your grief over the loss.
A number of free funeral poems have been written that speak to the loss of a beloved person. A funeral poem is not only appropriate for a funeral speech, but can also be included in the funeral program, obituary, video tribute or other memorial. A few lines of verse are often the right touch for remembering those who we want to remember.
Not everyone is gifted with words, but we can borrow the words of others to say the things that we want. The following are a few free funeral poems that we recommend using for a funeral.
Free Funeral Poems
Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we have 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 was the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
Death is Nothing at All – By Henry Scott Holland
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?
By Author Unknown
I am standing upon that foreshore, a ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, “there! she’s gone!”
“Gone where?” “Gone from my sight, that’s all”, she is just as large in mast and spar and hull as ever she was when she left my side; just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of her destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at that moment when someone at my side says, “there! she’s gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “here she comes!”
And that is dying.
What Is Dying? – By Bishop Brent
I think, no matter where you stray,
That I shall go with you a way.
Though you may wander sweeter lands,
You will not soon forget my hands,
Nor yet the way I held my head,
Nor all the tremulous things I said.
You still will see me, small and white
And smiling, in the secret night,
And feel my arms about you when
The day comes fluttering back again.
I think, no matter where you be,
You’ll hold me in your memory
And keep my image, there without me,
By telling later loves about me.
But Not Forgotten – By Dorothy Parker
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.
Remember – By Christina Rossetti
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am a 1,000 winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sun on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled light
I am the soft star that shines at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there; I did not die.
By Author Unknown
I fall asleep in the full and certain hope
That my slumber shall not be broken;
And that though I be all-forgetting,
Yet shall I not be forgotten,
But continue that life in the thoughts and deeds Of those I loved.
Hope – By Samuel Butler
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!
Miss me a little, but not for long,
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love we once shared,
Miss me, but let me go!
For this a journey we all must take,
And each must go alone;
It’s all a part of the master’s plan
A step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know,
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds,
Miss me, but let me go.
Miss Me, But Let Me Go – By Robyn Rancman
There are a lot of free funeral poems available to use to pay tribute to a loved one. Typically funeral poems are read at the funeral, but can also be engraved on a gravestone or plaque. You can also include a funeral poem in a sympathy message, the obituary or other memorial.
Read our other funeral poem articles below to find other free funeral poems to use for a funeral.
