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The Best 10 Uplifting Poems For A Funeral

This page features Uplifting Poems for a Funeral, a collection that includes happy funeral poems designed to bring light into a time of darkness. These verses carry a message of hope, focusing on the beauty of shared memories and the enduring nature of love. Ideal for individuals selected to read at a funeral or memorial service, the poems included here provide a heartfelt reminder of the joy and love that continue to exist, even in the face of loss.

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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's message of recognizing the uniqueness of every person provides comfort and encouragement during a funeral service.

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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's message of recognizing the uniqueness of every person provides comfort and encouragement during a funeral service.

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3) They Sit Together On The Porch

Author: Wendell Berry

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

They sit together on the porch, the dark Almost fallen, the house behind them dark. Their supper done with, they have washed and dried The dishes–only two plates now, two glasses, Two knives, two forks, two spoons–small work for two. She sits with her hands folded in her lap, At rest. They do not speak, And when they speak at last it is to say What each one knows the other knows. They have One mind between them, now, that finally For all its knowing will not exactly know Which one goes first through the dark doorway, bidding Goodnight, and which sits on a while alone.

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The poem captures a tender moment between two people in their twilight years, reflecting the beauty of companionship.

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4) 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 an uplifting funeral poem as it presents death in a calm and peaceful manner without any fear.

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5) The Last Invocation

Author: Walt Whitman

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

At the last, tenderly, From the walls of the powerful fortress‘d house, From the clasp of the knitted locks, from the keep of the well-closed doors, Let me be wafted. Let me glide noiselessly forth; With the key of softness unlock the locks – with a whisper, Set ope the doors O soul. Tenderly – be not impatient, (Strong is your hold O mortal flesh, Strong is your hold O love.)

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The poem's focus on the gentle transition from life to death, as well as the tender reassurance it provides, makes it an uplifting choice for funeral services.

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6) 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's message of togetherness and the potential for learning something new in the unknown provides comfort and encouragement during a funeral service.

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7) Funeral Blues

Author: W.H. Auden

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

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead. Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West. My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.

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Although the poem is sad, the love expressed can offer comfort and support, making it an uplifting choice for a funeral.

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8) 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 focuses on the beauty and wonder of life, making it an uplifting choice for a funeral.

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9) At The Mid Hour Of Night

Author: Thomas Moore

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

At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in Thine eye; And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions Of air To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to Me there And tell me our love is remember'd even in the sky! Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture to hear When our voices, commingling, breathed like one on The ear; And as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison Rolls, I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice, from the Kingdom Of Souls Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.

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The hope that love is remembered even in the sky and the idea of a spiritual reunion can provide comfort and upliftment to those mourning.

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10) 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's message of finding peace and unity with the world offers a sense of comfort and hope, making it uplifting for a funeral.

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