Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
- Robert Frost
Poet & Writer
Why We Have Readings At Funerals
It’s often said that at times in life when words are inadequate we turn to ceremony.
But the truth is, the formal words of the readings we use in funeral ceremonies also have the capacity to bear the weight of our most profound thoughts and feelings about death.
Crafted by master wordsmiths, they capture what we ourselves feel inside but are usually incapable of expressing so eloquently. They are words ‘well said’.
These do a wonderful job of helping friends and families move forward in their mourning.
For starters, readings that specifically mention death help mourners acknowledge the reality and finality of death and come to terms with it.
Each of these personalised readings can be prefaced with a few words about the reading’s place in the person’s life.
This helps funeral attendees remember the person who died.
Ceremonies can include readings, such as, religious texts, poems, book reading or other verses.
Involving Other Family Members And Friends In The Funeral
Inviting several different people to do readings is a good way to involve a number of mourners in the funeral ceremony.
Their involvement helps them as well as others.
Responsive or group readings can also demonstrate social bonds and evoke community support.
The Top 16 Funeral Readings Taken From Poems
- “When I am dead my dearest” by Christina Rossetti
- “Our revels are now ended” from The Tempest by William Shakespeare
- “The Choir Invisible” by George Eliot
- “But Not Forgotten” by Dorothy Parker
- “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden
- “Dear Lovely Death” by Langston Hughes
- “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye
- “Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats” by Percy Bysshe Shelle
- “Remember Me” by Margaret Mead
- “Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
- “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas
- “The Emperor of Ice Cream” by Wallace Stevens
- “Turn Again to Life” by Mary Lee Hall
- “Remember” by Christina Rossetti
- “Epitaph on a Friend” by Robert Burns
- “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
Source: Dr Alan Wolfelt & Bustle