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The Best 10 Popular Funeral Poems

This collection encompasses popular funeral poems that have touched hearts across the globe. These renowned verses, penned by acclaimed poets, offer eloquent reflections on death and the shared human experience of loss. It's a curated selection to aid anyone assigned the important task of reading at a funeral or memorial service. The poems listed herein can help express the inexpressible, shedding light on the journey we all must inevitably face.

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1) There Are No Boring People In This World

Author: Yevgeny Yevtushenko

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

There are no boring people in this world. Each fate is like the history of a planet. And no two planets are alike at all. Each is distinct – you simply can’t compare it. If someone lived without attracting notice and made a friend of their obscurity – then their uniqueness was precisely this. Their very plainness made them interesting. Each person has a world that’s all their own. Each of those worlds must have its finest moment and each must have its hour of bitter torment – and yet, to us, both hours remain unknown. When people die, they do not die alone. They die along with their first kiss, first combat. They take away their first day in the snow … All gone, all gone – there’s just no way to stop it. There may be much that’s fated to remain, but something – something leaves us all the same. The rules are cruel, the game nightmarish – it isn’t people but whole worlds that perish.

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The poem emphasizes the uniqueness and value of every individual, making it a popular choice for funerals.

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2) The Triumph Of Death

Author: William Shakespeare

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

No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world, that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell; Nay, if you read this line, remember not The hand that writ it; for I love you so, That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot If thinking on me then should make you woe. O if, I say, you look upon this verse When I perhaps compounded am with clay Do not so much as my poor name rehearse, But let your love even with my life decay; Lest the wise world should look into your moan, And mock you with me after I am gone.

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The poem emphasizes the uniqueness and value of every individual, making it a popular choice for funerals.

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3) Remembrance

Author: William Shakespeare

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

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, And weep afresh love's long-since-cancell'd woe, And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight. Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of fore-bemoanéd moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before: --But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

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The poem's theme of remembrance and reflecting on past memories makes it a popular choice for funeral services.

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4) 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's contemplation of the passage of time and the impermanence of life has made it a popular choice for funeral services.

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5) My Funeral

Author: Wendy Cope

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

I hope I can trust you, friends, not to use our relationship As an excuse for an unsolicited ego-trip. I have seen enough of them at funerals and they make me cross. At this one, though deceased, I aim to be the boss. If you are asked to talk about me for five minutes, please do not go on for eight. There is a strict timetable at the crematorium and nobody wants to be late. If invited to read a poem, just read the bloody poem. If requested To sing a song, just sing it, as suggested, And don’t say anything. Though I will not be there, Glancing pointedly at my watch and fixing the speaker with a malevolent stare. Remember that this was how I always reacted When I felt that anybody’s speech, sermon or poetry reading was becoming too protracted. Yes, I was intolerant, and not always polite And if there aren’t many people at my funeral, it will serve me right.

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This poem addresses the topic of funerals directly and has been shared by many as a reflection on their own funeral wishes.

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6) On His Own Death

Author: Walter Savage Landor

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

Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear: Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.

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This poem could be considered a popular funeral poem due to its reflection on death and mortality.

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7) 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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This poem contemplates life and its end, making it a suitable choice for funeral services.

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8) O Captain! My Captain!

Author: Walt Whitman's

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O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

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This poem, by Walt Whitman, is widely known and has been used in various contexts, making it a popular choice for funeral readings.

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9) Good-Bye, My Fancy!

Author: Walt Whitman

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

Good-bye my Fancy! Farewell dear mate, dear love! I‘m going away, I know not where, Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again, So Good-bye my Fancy. Now for my last – let me look back a moment; The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me, Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping. Long have we lived, joy‘d, carress‘d together; Delightful! – now separation – Good-bye my Fancy. Yet let me not be too hasty, Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter‘d, become really blended into one; Then if we die we die together, (Yes, we‘ll remain one,) If we go anywhere we‘ll go together to meet what happens, May-be we‘ll be better off and blither, and learn something, May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?) May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning – so now finally, Good-bye – and hail! my Fancy.

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The poem expresses a farewell and acceptance of the unknown, making it a popular choice for funerals.

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10) 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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This poem explores the journey of the soul into the unknown, making it a popular choice for reflecting on the mysteries of life and death.

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