Find classic, modern, and contemporary poems to read or share at funerals, in memorial services, or in sympathy cards, including poems about grief, death, hope, family, and comfort.


Classic Poems to Read at Funerals

Inarticulate Grief” by Richard Aldington
Let the sea beat its thin torn hands…

Because I could not stop for Death (479)” by Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death –

Forever” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I had not known before…

Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold...

Loss” by Winifred M. Letts
In losing you I lost my sun and moon…

Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts…

[Again and again, even though we know love’s landscape]” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Again and again, even though we know love’s landscape…

Under the Harvest Moon” by Carl Sandburg
Under the harvest moon...

I Have a Rendezvous with Death” by Alan Seeger
I have a rendezvous with Death…

Crossing the Bar” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sunset and evening star…

Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night…

Warm Summer Sun” by Mark Twain
Warm summer sun…

A Meeting” by Edith Wharton
On a sheer peak of joy we meet…

O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done…

Song of the Open Road, I” by Walt Whitman
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road…

Contemporary and Modern Poems to Read at Funerals

Orchids Are Sprouting From the Floorboards” by Kaveh Akbar
Orchids are sprouting from the floorboards…

One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master…

sorrows” by Lucille Clifton
who would believe them winged...

the dark tree, the cold sea” by Emily Fragos
although I know you can never be found…

A Journey” by Nikki Giovanni
It’s a journey… that I propose… I am not the guide…

Rituals for Ash” by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
We will smudge…

For Keeps” by Joy Harjo
Sun makes the day new…

It Was Like This: You Were Happy” by Jane Hirshfield
It was like this…

What the Living Do” by Marie Howe
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days…

The Comfort of Darkness” by Galway Kinnell
Darkness swept the earth in my dream…

Wolf’s Trees” by J. D. McClatchy
If trees fall in a wood and no one hears them…

What Changes” by Naomi Shihab Nye
My father’s hopes travel with him…

Ever” by Meghan O’Rourke
Even now I can’t grasp “nothing” or “never”…

Untitled [This is what was bequeathed us]” by Gregory Orr
This is what was bequeathed us…

Etta’s Elegy” by Maureen Seaton
This is where the poem holds its breath…

Question” by May Swenson
Body my house…

Eulogy” by Kevin Young
To allow silence…