Comforting Poems and Quotes for Funerals, Eulogies and Memorial Services

Written words can be more effective than spoken condolences at reaching the part of a person's heart which is grieving.

Poems can provide solace and reach a person on a deeper level than with just the spoken word or a simple touch.

Writing poetry can be a way of releasing painful stored emotions by trying to make sense of what is often the insensible.

Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS   
Grief, Loss & Transitions Blog    

Lucie Storrs of the Light Beyond spent hours reviewing books of poems and quotes and searching the Internet to compile this extensive collection of more than 250 bereavement poems, quotes and funeral readings.

This collection of poems, quotes and readings contains many of the classic sympathy poems with  some of the more recent, contemporary ones. The user-friendly eBook, "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" is readily available for download after purchase. Within a few quick minutes, you have access to the resources you might need to write a funeral speech or eulogy.

I was very honored when Lucie Storrs, the creator of the eBook of Funeral poems approached me to use one of my poems, "In Memory of You" in this extensive compilation of traditional and contemporary funeral poems and readings.

My poem, "In Memory of You" was included as an example of a contemporary bereavement poem in the new eBook of Funeral poems, "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep."

I read an old card
sent many years ago
during a time of turmoil and confusion.
The soothing words written then
still caress my spirit
and bring me peace...

I miss your being
but I feel your presence,
In whatever form you choose to take,
however you now choose to be.

Your spirit has become for me
a guardian angel on high
guiding, advising, and watching over me.

I remember you.
You are with me
and I am not afraid.  

© 1996 Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS.

A Bereavement Poems eBook Author

Image of Rose in Book by ugaldew.

Words to Comfort: In Memory of You
"In Memory of You" was written on a sunny winter day, penned in response to news of the death of a dear family friend from bone cancer. Her death combined with the deaths of several other recent significant losses and more distant losses were the inspiration for the poem.

Poems for Healing: The Messenger
"The Messenger" was written many years ago to provide a bit of solace and soothing words for a family friend and patient, both of whom had recently lost their spouses. I decided to share the healing poem, The Messenger since it has been used as a remembrance poem by so many people in newspapers, brochures, online and at funeral services.

Memorial Poem: A Better Place
A Better Place came to me after a request by a visitor to the site to find a poem that would be appropriate for remembering a birthday of a young woman killed by a drunk driver. This poem has been used by others in their memorial services and tributes.

Memorial Poem: Cherub
"Cherub" was written as a tribute to those who have lost a child, an infant, a new born, a stillborn, at any age, and to Shannon Kay. She made a brief appearance, in 1996 but her memory lives on in the family and friend who lost her. She is another of the inspirations for the creation of this website, the resources on stillbirths and loss of an infant, and the Inspiration behind the Walk to Remember.

This is the new version of the Do Not Stand at My Grave And Weep poem written by Mary Elizabeth Frye. The middle verse was added in 2007 by Lucie Storrs for the movie/video version.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there;
I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn's rain.

Do not stand at my grave and mourn.
I am the dew-flecked grass at dawn.
Where tranquil oceans meet the land
I am the footprints in the sand
To guide you through the weary day.
I am still here;
I'll always stay.

When you wake up to morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there;
I did not die.

© 2007 Lucie Storrs www.thelightbeyond.com. Reprinted with Permission.

A Bereavement Poems eBook Author

Be sure to see the video clip of this verions of the poem put to music and to images.

Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep - A Poem, A Song and A Book to Comfort
This beloved poem has turned into a valuable eBook. This carefully researched and edited collection of poems, quotes and readings are useful sources for writing a eulogy, funeral speech or memorial speech.

Lucie Storrs created an inspirational and comforting online mini movie or video to help those grieving the loss of a loved one. She used her updated version of the sympathy poem "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep."

Using beautiful imagery and music by Brady Barnett this video clip works to comfort mourners grieving a loss. The music is by Brady Barnett in memory of his son Jonah.

From a speech given by Regius Professor of Divinity Henry Scott Holland in 1910 following the death of King Edward VII. The speech is often used as a funeral poem.

This poem is included in the eBook download as one of the traditional funeral poems.

Death is nothing at all.

It does not count.

I have only slipped away into the next room.

Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.

I am I, and you are you,

and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that 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 an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolute and 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 but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.

All is well.

Henry Scott Holland

Source: Holland, Henry Scott. 1910. The King of Terrors. Wikisource.

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.

Thomas Campbell   

Poetry - To Help You Make it Through
Poetry can help us realize we are not alone or unique in our grief or desolation. Poems speak to us when nothing else will.

Poems for Times of Turmoil
The email "gift" came from the staff of the Academy of American Poets with links to a collection of poems specially selected for Times of Turmoil.

Creatively Coping: Write a Prayer Poem
While I was in medical school, residency and clinical practice I wrote and used poetry to help friends, family, patients and colleagues deal with the pain from losses and aid in their grieving.

Writing a Loss, Grief or Healing Haiku
The concept of writing a Loss Haiku, a Grief Haiku and then a Healing Haiku was one that I presented at the Spring Conference of the California Hospice Foundation in 2003 as part of a talk on “Understanding and Creatively Expressing Grief.”

"Do Not Stand By My Grave and Weep" is a wonderful collection of poems and quotations...

I like most is how well the material is organized: by title, by first line, and by the type of loss, making it easier for the writer to find the perfect words to enhance a condolence letter or a eulogy.

Marty Tousley
Hospice Bereavement Counselor

The Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep eBook is a very useful resource to have availble. The 250 poems, quotes and readings can be used in many ways to help those coping with grief.

This eBook can be used when

• Writing a Funeral speech
• Planning a Funeral
• Writing a Eulogy
• Planning in Memorial Services
• Sending Words of Comfort as Condolences Writing a Sympathy Letter or Note
• Easing the pain of grief
• Searching to find the right words to express grief
• Writing an Obituary or Death Announcement
• Reading Contemporary and Traditional Bereavement Poems

The Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep eBook features a collection of classical and traditional authors over 180 authors who have contributed a total of 250 poems and quotations. Some of the many grief poets include (in alphabetical order):

Anne and Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Buddha, Leo Buscaglia, Noel Coward, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Daphne du Maurier, Kirsti A. Dyer, Max Ehrmann, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Viktor Frankl, Mary Elizabeth Frye, Kahlil Gibran, Henry Scott Holland, Homer, Helen Keller, Rudyard Kipling, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, D.H. Lawrence, C.S. Lewis, Li Po, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Muir, Hugh Robert Orr, Dorothy Parker, Sogyal Rinpoche, Christina Rossetti, Carl Sandburg, Seneca, William Shakespeare, Adlai Stevenson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rabindranath Tagore, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, Mark Twain, Henry van Dyke, Edith Wharton, E.B. White, Walt Whitman, Thomas Wolfe and William Wordsworth.

I am greatly honored to be included as a grief poet with this notable group of authors.

To order a copy of Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep, the collection of over 250 poems, quotations and readings to comfort, by clicking on any of the live book links on this page.

The Do Not Stand Ay My Grave and Weep eBook it is available for immediate download from the Light Beyond as a PDF file after purchase.

Poems for Funerals
The elegy--the traditional poem for mourning--began in ancient Greece as a sad song lamenting love and death, often accompanied by a flute and written in a specific meter. A collection of poems for funerals from Poets.org

Poem for Funerals
These are some of the best poems suitable for funerals determined by the Poet Seers.

Poems for Tragedy and Grief
Tragedy and grief can be encountered privately or publicly, felt in secret or experienced and expressed as a community. Poems of tragedy and grief address the occasions where words are difficult, from personal heartbreak to the Vietnam War to September 11, illuminating and sanctifying private and public loss. These poems try to help us to heal, or give us wisdom, or lend support in time of need.

Best Poems for Funerals
A collection of funeral poems that can play a very meaningful role in a memorial or funeral service. Use funeral poems are noted within funeral programs or can be read aloud at the funeral memorial service.

Funeral Poems and Memorial Verses
An extensive list of favorite funeral poems, verses, sayings and quotes suitable for reading at a memorial tribute or celebration of life. The poems can be read at the service, or included in the memorial program, or as sympathy poems in a card or letter.

To order a copy of Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep, the collection of over 250 poems, quotations and readings to comfort, by clicking on any of the live book links on this page.

The Do Not Stand Ay My Grave and Weep eBook it is available for immediate download from the Light Beyond as a PDF file after purchase.