Eulogy Poems and Readings: 12 Full Texts, Grouped by Tone

A eulogy reading works best when it is short, clearly introduced, and placed near the end. Twelve poems and readings are written out in full below, grouped by tone, each with the length in seconds and the exact sentence to say before you read it.

Most pages of funeral poems hand you a long list and leave you there. That is the easy half. The hard half is the ten seconds either side of the poem.

So every reading here comes with three things the lists leave out: how long it takes to say out loud at funeral pace, a line to say before it, and a line to say after it. All twelve are old enough to be free for anyone to read or print.

Pick one. Two at the very most. Then get back to writing the part only you can write.

How to choose in two minutes

Match the reading to the person, not to the occasion. The four groups below are sorted by the job they do:

• Short readings (10 to 35 seconds) for a full service, or a voice that will not hold.
• The ones people ask for by name, the familiar readings a room recognises.
• Readings for a long life, for someone old, ready, or finished well.
• Faith readings, in the wording most churches expect.

If you are torn between two, read both aloud once, standing up. The right one is the one you can get through.

Short readings, under thirty five seconds

These work when four people are speaking, when the service is running long, or when you want to end on someone else's words and sit down.

1. Two lines by Emily Dickinson

For: when you want something at the very end that takes ten seconds and lands hard.

Unable are the loved to die,
For love is immortality.

Reading time: about ten seconds. The shortest usable reading there is. It works as a final line after your own last sentence, with no introduction at all: a pause, the two lines, then stop.

Before it, say nothing. Let the silence do the introducing.

After it, say: "Thank you." Then go and sit down.

2. Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost

For: a death that came too early, or a person who was at their best when it ended.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Reading time: about 25 seconds. Eight short lines, no religious content, and it says the unfair thing out loud instead of tidying it away. Read it slowly.

Before it, say: "There is a poem about this that is only eight lines long, and it says it better than I can."

After it, say: "That was the thing about Dan. Gold, and not long enough."

3. Time Is Too Slow for Those Who Wait, by Henry van Dyke

For: a long illness, a long wait, or a family that has been sitting in a hospital for months.

Time is too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love, time is eternity.

Reading time: about 20 seconds. Every line names a different person in the room, which is why it settles a mixed congregation.

Before it, say: "These last months have been very long and very short at the same time. Someone put that better in 1904."

After it, say: "For those who love, time is eternity. I am holding on to that one."

4. Requiem, by Robert Louis Stevenson

For: someone who was outdoors, practical, well travelled, or ready to go.

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Reading time: about 35 seconds. The last two lines are the reason people choose it. They do the work of a whole paragraph about coming home.

Before it, say: "Dad asked for this one years ago, in the middle of a Sunday lunch, and then never mentioned it again."

After it, say: "Home from the hill. That is where he is."

The readings people ask for by name

These three are the most requested funeral readings in English. A room recognises them, which is part of what they are for. Familiar words ask less of people who are barely holding on.

5. Death Is Nothing at All, by Henry Scott Holland

For: a family who wants comfort rather than grandeur, and a service where nobody wants the word death said too heavily.

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. 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.

Reading time: about one minute and forty seconds, which is long for a reading inside a eulogy. Many people read only the middle paragraph, starting at "Call me by the old familiar name", and that version takes 30 seconds. One honest note: it comes from a sermon of 1910 in which Holland was describing how death feels at first, then arguing with it. Nobody in the room will know that, and it has comforted people for over a century on its own terms.

Before it, say: "Mum read this at her own mother's funeral. I am going to read it at hers."

After it, say: "All is well. She would want that to be true for us by about Tuesday."

6. Remember, by Christina Rossetti

For: a spouse, a parent, or anyone who told you not to make a fuss.

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Reading time: about 55 seconds. The sonnet turns on the last two lines, so do not rush them. Slow down at "Better by far", and stop properly at the end of the line.

Before it, say: "She spent thirty years telling us not to fuss. This is the poem version of that."

After it, say: "Forget and smile. Those were close to her exact words to me in August."

7. Song, by Christina Rossetti

For: someone who did not want a big funeral, and a family who needs permission to get on with things.

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

Reading time: about 25 seconds for this first verse. There is a second verse, and most people read only this one, which is a complete thought on its own. Same poet as the reading above, doing close to the opposite job: one asks to be remembered, this one hands the choice back to you.

Before it, say: "He was very clear that he did not want a fuss. I found eight lines that agree with him."

After it, say: "Remember, or forget. He meant it either way."

Readings for a long life

These suit someone who was old, or tired at the end, or whose death was sad but not a shock. They carry a note of completion that would sound wrong for a young death.

8. Crossing the Bar, by Alfred Tennyson

For: a long life, a peaceful death, anyone who worked on or loved the sea.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

Reading time: about one minute. Tennyson asked for this to be printed at the end of every collection of his poems, which is as close as a writer gets to choosing their own last words. The old spellings are correct: read them as the modern words.

Before it, say: "He was on boats for sixty years. There is only one poem I could have picked."

After it, say: "No moaning of the bar. That was an instruction, and we are going to be bad at it."

9. Eight lines from Song of Myself, by Walt Whitman

For: a gardener, a farmer, an atheist, or anyone who would rather be in the ground than in heaven.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Reading time: about 35 seconds. It is the best non-religious reading there is for someone who worked with soil, and the last line leaves the door open without promising heaven.

Before it, say: "She did not believe in much, but she believed in that garden. Whitman gets closest."

After it, say: "I stop somewhere waiting for you. Under the boot-soles, probably, telling us we have planted it wrong."

10. Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 to 4

For: a service that is loosely religious, or a family that wants scripture without a sermon.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Reading time: about 45 seconds. Stop at "a time to dance": the passage runs on for four more verses and loses its shape. It is the one reading here that works in a church, a crematorium and a village hall without changing a word.

Before it, say: "Whatever any of us believe, this is the oldest true thing anyone has written about days like today."

After it, say: "Today is the weeping and the mourning. The dancing comes later, and it will."

Faith readings

Both are in the King James wording, which is what most churches and most older mourners expect. If your service uses a modern Bible, ask the minister and use theirs, so the words match the order of service.

11. Psalm 23

For: any Christian service, and for a room with a lot of older people in it.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Reading time: about one minute. Half the room will say it with you under their breath, and that is the point of it. If you might not get through your own words, this is the safest thing to end on, because you will not be reading it alone.

Before it, say: "This was on the card at Dad's funeral, and Mum knew it by heart from school."

After it, say: "Amen." Nothing else is needed.

12. 1 Corinthians 13

For: a spouse, a long marriage, or someone whose defining quality was patience.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Reading time: about one minute. The King James word is charity. Nearly every modern translation uses love, which is usually the word you want at a funeral, so check which Bible the service uses. This passage is read at more weddings than funerals, which is exactly why it works for a marriage that lasted.

Before it, say: "They had this read at their wedding in 1968. I looked it up again this week and it turns out it was a description, not a wish."

After it, say: "Fifty seven years of suffering long and being kind. That was them."

Where does a reading go in a eulogy?

Put it near the end, just before your final sentence, or use it as the final thing you say. A reading there lets someone else's steady words carry the moment when your own voice is least reliable, and it signals to the room that you are finishing.

The other place that works is the very beginning, before you introduce yourself. You read the poem cold, then say who you are. It buys you twenty seconds to get your breathing under control before you have to be personal. What does not work is the middle: a poem dropped in among your stories stalls the whole thing, and you have to restart from nothing.

If the reading is your ending, the sentence before it matters more than the poem does. There is more on that in our guide to how to end a eulogy, which writes out twelve complete endings and the run-up to each one.

How long should the reading be compared to the eulogy?

Keep the reading under a quarter of your total time. A five minute eulogy, which is about 700 words, can carry a one minute reading. A two minute eulogy can carry 20 seconds and no more. If the poem runs longer than your own words, the room heard a poem, not a eulogy.

Two readings inside one eulogy is almost always one too many. If the family wants several, ask the celebrant to spread them through the service and give them to different people, so four voices are heard and nobody holds the room for nine minutes. Our page of short eulogy examples has the words-to-minutes maths for a hard time limit.

How do you read a poem out loud without losing your place?

Print it in 18 point type on its own sheet, double spaced, and do not staple it to anything. Your hands will shake, and one loose page is easier to hold than a stack. Put a slash in pen where you want to breathe. Read the last line of each verse slightly slower, because that is where listeners catch up.

Read it out loud three times before the day. Not in your head. Standing, at the speed you would use in a room of two hundred people, which is slower than feels natural. Most people read a poem about 30 percent faster than they should. Mark your own copy even if the order of service prints it, because you will not find your line on an unmarked page while you are crying. If the writing itself is still ahead of you, the eulogy writer puts a first draft on the page from a few questions about them, free to preview, so you have something to edit instead of a blank screen.

What if you cannot get through it?

Stop and breathe out. A pause of ten seconds feels like a minute to you and like nothing to the room. Nobody is judging the delivery. They are all doing the same arithmetic about their own family.

Ask one person in advance to be your backup and give them a printed copy for their pocket. Tell them the rule out loud: if you raise your hand, or stop for longer than a count of five, they come up and finish the reading. Knowing it will be read whatever happens is what lets most people get through it themselves. A reading is the easiest part to hand over, because the words are not yours and anyone can say them.

Can you change the words of a poem?

For everything on this page, yes. All twelve are old enough that the text is free to use, cut and reprint, so you can drop a verse, change a pronoun or stop halfway. Cutting is usually an improvement at a funeral. If you cut, say so lightly first: "I am going to read part of this."

For anything written in the last hundred years, including most of the well known modern funeral poems, the text still belongs to the poet or their estate. Reading one aloud at a service is fine and normal. Printing it in the order of service needs permission, which the funeral director handles as routine. Ask them rather than working it out yourself. If you are quoting inside your own writing rather than reading a poem whole, our guide to what to include in a eulogy covers how much quoted material a eulogy can carry before it stops sounding like you.

Frequently asked questions

What is a beautiful poem to read at a funeral?

Remember by Christina Rossetti and Crossing the Bar by Alfred Tennyson are the two most chosen, and both are written out in full above. For something shorter, Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost takes 25 seconds. Beauty matters less than fit. The right poem sounds like the person who died, not like the most impressive poem.

What poem was read at Princess Diana's funeral?

Her sisters read two short pieces at the 1997 service. Lady Sarah McCorquodale read Turn Again to Life by Mary Lee Hall, which begins "If I should die and leave you here a while". Lady Jane Fellowes read lines from Time Is Too Slow for Those Who Wait by Henry van Dyke, which is written out in full above. The poem people often think of, Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden, was not read there. That association comes from the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

What is the best opening line for a eulogy?

Your name and your exact relationship, then one specific detail. "I am Ruth, and Peter was my brother for fifty one years, and he never once let me pay for lunch." Never open with a dictionary definition or an apology for being nervous. If you open with a reading instead, read it cold and introduce yourself straight afterwards.

What is the best last line of a eulogy?

Speak to them, not about them, and keep it under ten words. "Thank you, Dad. I will see you at the boat." A short reading works just as well as a last line, and the two lines from Emily Dickinson above are the shortest option on this page.

How many readings should there be at a funeral?

Two or three across the whole service, given to different people, and no more than one inside any single eulogy. More than three and it starts to feel like an anthology rather than a goodbye. The celebrant will usually suggest one near the start and one near the end.

Do you have to say who wrote the poem?

Say the title and the poet before you read, in six words or fewer: "This is Remember, by Christina Rossetti." Do not read a biography of the poet. The room came for the person in the coffin. If the poem is anonymous or came off a card your mother kept, say that instead. Where it came from is often the most moving part.

Pick the one you can finish. Print it big, read it slow, and let it hold the last thirty seconds so you do not have to. If the rest of the speech is still blank, that is normal four days out, and our guide on how to write a eulogy when you do not know where to start is the next thing to read. You can also start a draft here and see a preview before paying anything.