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The Best 10 Nature Funeral Poems

This compilation focuses on Nature Funeral Poems, bringing together verses that draw parallels between the cycles of nature and human life. These poems use the beauty, serenity, and perpetual motion of the natural world to reflect on the ebb and flow of human existence. Ideal for reading at a funeral or memorial service, the poems listed here offer a unique perspective on life, death, and the enduring spirit of the natural world.

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1) Like As The Waves Make Towards The Pebbled Shore

Author: William Shakespeare

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end, Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown‘d, Crooked eclipses ‗gainst his glory fight, And Time, that gave, doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth, And delves the parallels in beauty‘s brow; Feels on the rarities of nature‘s truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow. And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

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The poem uses natural imagery, such as waves and the pebbled shore, to illustrate the passage of time and the inevitable march towards the end of life.

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2) Finis

Author: Walter Savage Landor

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: I warm‘d both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.

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The poem uses natural imagery, such as waves and the pebbled shore, to illustrate the passage of time and the inevitable march towards the end of life.

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3) Darest Thou Now O Soul

Author: Walt Whitman

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

Darest thou now O soul, Walk out with me toward the unknown region, Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow? No map there, nor guide, Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand, Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land. I know it not O soul, Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us, All waits undream‘d of in that region, that inaccessible land. Till when the ties loosen, All but the ties eternal, Time and Space, Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us. Then we burst forth, we float, In Time and Space O soul, prepared for them, Equal, equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil O soul

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The poem uses natural imagery to describe the soul's journey, making it relevant for this category.

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4) Celebrating A Life-In Words Of One Syllable

Author: Tony Sims

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

Strange that it should be so, Be born and live and grow, Watch weird new worlds go by In the blink of an eye. Wake up to days of gold, And shake when nights grow cold, Hear frogs plop in still ponds Fringed by ranks of tall wands, And quake as mad March mirth Stirs seeds in new warmed earth To birth a Spring, and spray White blooms in a green May. With day's drum beat is done, When dark clouds hide the sun, Turn to cast an awed eye On gems spilt in the sky. Strange that it should be so- This non stop ebb and flow, Fixed in a flux of ghost And flint and blood-yet most Strange of all, though our din Of brave words is lost in A deaf wind's rise and fall- The breath to say it all.

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The poem uses imagery from nature to illustrate the ebb and flow of life, making it a fitting choice for nature-themed funerals.

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5) The Death Bed

Author: Thomas Hood

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

We watch'd her breathing thro' the night, Her breathing soft and low, As in her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro. But when the morn came dim and sad And chill with early showers, Her quiet eyelids closed--she had Another morn than ours.

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The poem uses natural imagery, such as "the wave of life" and "early showers," to describe the dying process and the arrival of a new day.

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6) Little Gidding (From Four Quartets)

Author: T.S Elliot

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, unremembered gate When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything) And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flame are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one.

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The poem includes imagery of rivers, waterfalls, and the sea, connecting it to the theme of nature.

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7) The Old Farmer's Prayer

Author: Steve Watkins

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

Time just keeps moving on, Many years have come and gone, But I grow older without regret, My hopes are in what may come yet. On the farm, I work each day, This is where I wish to stay, I watch the seeds each season sprout, From the soil as the plants rise out. I study Nature and I learn, To know the earth and feel her turn, I love her dearly and all the seasons, For I have learned her secret reasons. All that will live is in the bosom of Earth, She is the loving mother of all birth, But all that lives must pass away, And go back again to her someday. My life too will pass from Earth, But do not grieve, I say, there will be other birth, When my body is old and all spent, And my soul to Heaven has went. Please compost and spread me on this plain, So my body Mother Earth can claim, That is where I wish to be, Then Nature can nourish new life with me. So do not grieve and weep for me, I did not leave, I only sleep, I am with the soil here below, Where I can nourish life of beauty and glow. Here I can help the falling rain, Grow golden fields of ripening grain, From here I can join the winds that blow, And meet the softly falling snow. Here I can help the sun’s warming light, Grow food for birds of gliding flight, I can be in the beautiful flowers of spring, And in every other lovely thing. So do not weep and cry for me, I am here, I do not die.

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The poem is deeply intertwined with the theme of nature, the seasons, and the earth, making it related to this category.

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8) The Harvest

Author: Sherrie Bradley Neal

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

Sown in the earth by skillful hands Brought forth by sun and storm, Destined for a harvest day Fulfilled when ripe grain forms. Golden wheat in sheaves prepared For winter that will reign, The story of the life of man Told by the golden grain. Made from the earth by loving hands Through heat and rain prepared, To face the joys and storms of life And treasured moments shared. When at last the harvest comes As the fields receive the dew, A life well lived leaves legacy The Master’s plan in view.

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The poem uses the metaphor of a harvest and the growth of wheat to represent the cycle of life, which relates to the theme of nature in funerals.

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9) Adonais

Author: Shelley

 Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep — He hath awakened from the dream of life — ‘Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep With phantoms an unprofitable strife, And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife Invulnerable nothings. — We decay Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief Convulse us and consume us day by day, And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay. The One remains, the many change and pass; Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth’s shadows fly; Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of Eternity, Until Death tramples it to fragments. — Die, If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek! Follow where all is fled!—Rome's azure sky, Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words, are weak The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak.

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The poem uses natural imagery, such as "Heaven's light" and "Earth's shadows," to convey its message, making it relevant to this category

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10) Your Grief For What You've Lost Holds A Mirror

Author: Rumi

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Your grief for what you've lost holds a mirror Up to where you're bravely working. Expecting the worst, you look and instead, Here's the joyful face you've been wanting to see. Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, You would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding The two as beautifully balanced and coordinated As bird wings.

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The imagery of bird wings in the poem ties it to the theme of nature.

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