![]() No list of great funeral poems would be complete without this, surely? Written in 1936 (actually as part of a play, in which the poem or song was designed to be a mockery of public obituaries), this poem has become a favourite at funeral services, thanks largely to its recital in the smash-hit 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral. One of the most popular poems to be read at funeral services, this poem dates from the early twentieth century and sees the speaker entreating the loved ones she leaves behind not to mourn for her. Mary Elizabeth Frye, ‘ Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep’. Here, with one balm for many fevers found,Ĩ. Nor grieve to think how ill God made me, now. I never sigh, nor flush, nor knit the brow, As this is an epitaph, it’s the ideal poem to recite at a funeral or memorial service. ![]() Like Dickinson, the English poet Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) was much possessed by death, and perhaps no English poet of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century wrote so simply yet so movingly about dying. Her death affected Wilde greatly, as notebooks from this time demonstrate: Wilde even felt partly responsible for Isola’s death. Isola Wilde was just nine years old when she died, while recovering from a fever, during a visit to Edgeworthstown Rectory, in Ireland. In just eight short lines, the author of Treasure Island (who was also a fine poet as well) offers the perfect epitaph for someone who has passed over to the other side: death is not a loss, but simply a returning home.Ī tender poem written about Wilde’s own sister, ‘Requiescat’ has a Latin title which means literally ‘may he or she rest in peace’. We passed the School, where Children strove Many of Dickinson’s poems touch upon the subject of death, but here she went one further, personifying it as Death and offering a beautifully cryptic response to the event that must come for all of us:
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