Picking a reading for a funeral isn’t as easy as you might first think. You want reading that fits with the person whose funeral it is and that reflects them. If needs to be work when read out lot and doesn’t fall flat to a quiet room full of people who loved them.
From the funeral services I’ve been to I know the readings which have the most impact aren’t always the famous ones. Sometimes it’s four lines of an old poem nobody in the room can name. Sometimes it might be a single Bible verse a granddaughter reads in a shaky voice.
So to help I’ve put together more than 40 funeral readings below. They’re both religious and not with long and short options.
A few you’ll recognize straight away and some you might be coming across for the first time. Read them slowly, out loud if you can manage it, and the one that sound the best and that feels right will probably be the one.
Religious Funeral Readings
Scripture is still the most usual choice for a funeral reading. These passages have been read over the people we love for hundreds of years. All of the verses below are from the King James Bible.
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.
— Psalm 23
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.
— Ecclesiastes 3:1-4
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
— John 14:1-3
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
— Revelation 21:4
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
— 1 Corinthians 13:4, 13
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 8:38-39
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
— Psalm 121:1-3, 8
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
— Isaiah 40:31
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.
— Psalm 46:1-2
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
— 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 54-55
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
— Job 19:25-26
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
— Lamentations 3:22-23, 25
If you want more verses to choose from, our pages on comforting Bible verses and Bible verses about loss have plenty and funeral prayers can work well alongside a reading too.
Catholic Funeral Readings
Catholic services usually follow a set structure with a reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm and a reading from the New Testament. There are two that come up again and again. The first is from the Douay-Rheims Bible.
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery: and their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace.
— Wisdom 3:1-3
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.
— 2 Timothy 4:7-8
There’s more on our Catholic funeral readings page if you need the proper structure for the Mass.
Non Religious Funeral Readings
Not every funeral is a church service and lots of families don’t want to use scripture for their reading. So the following readings are about love and letting go rather than faith. They will work well for a humanist service or a celebration of life.
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. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
— Henry Scott Holland
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 rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I did not die.
— Mary Elizabeth Frye
Miss me a little, but not for long,
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
miss me, but let me go.
For this is a journey we all must take,
and each must go alone.
It’s all a part of the master’s plan,
a step on the road to home.
— Anonymous
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”
Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There, she is gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”
— Henry Van Dyke
You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
— Kahlil Gibran, from “The Prophet”
Life is but a stopping place,
a pause in what’s to be,
a resting place along the road
to sweet eternity.
We all have different journeys,
different paths along the way,
we all were meant to learn some things,
but never meant to stay.
— Anonymous
God looked around his garden
and found an empty place.
He then looked down upon the earth
and saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you
and lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful,
he always takes the best.
— Anonymous
You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back, or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left. Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her, or you can be full of the love that you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember her and only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
— Mary Lee Hall, “Turn Again to Life”
Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
— Rabindranath Tagore
Famous Poems Used as Funeral Readings
Some poems have been read at funerals so often they’re almost a cliche. But they’re chosen for a reason. They were written by people who knew loss and managed to put it into words better than most of us ever could. If you have a look at our funeral poems too you’ll see a few of them there as well.
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.
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.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Crossing the Bar” (excerpt)
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.
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.
— Christina Rossetti, “Remember” (excerpt)
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.
— Robert Louis Stevenson, “Requiem”
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
— John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud” (excerpt)
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
— Emily Dickinson (excerpt)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
— William Ernest Henley, “Invictus” (excerpt)
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
— Christina Rossetti, “Up-Hill”
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.
— Robert Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
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.
— Christina Rossetti, “Song”
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
— William Shakespeare, from “Cymbeline”
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life” (excerpt)
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
Warm summer sun, shine kindly here.
Warm southern wind, blow softly here.
Green sod above, lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart, good night, good night.
— Mark Twain
Short Funeral Readings
Not everything has to be long. If the speaker is nervous or you just want something that lands quickly and quietly, a few lines can do more than a full poem. These are easy to read aloud and hard to get wrong.
To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.
— Thomas Campbell
What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
— Helen Keller
Weep not for me though I am gone
into that gentle night.
Grieve if you will, but not for long
upon my soul’s sweet flight.
— Anonymous
Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy.
— Eskimo proverb
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Remember her not in sorrow but in the small, ordinary moments where her kindness still shows up.
— Anonymous
Other Popular Funeral Readings
A few readings come up at funerals constantly but we can’t reprint because they’re still under copyright. I didn’t want to leave them off the list though so here’s what they are and why people feel they’re right. You’ll find the full text easily enough through the poet or their publisher.
- “The Dash” by Linda Ellis. This is about the little dash between the two dates on a headstone and how the dash is the part that really counts. It’s very popular for celebration of life services because it’s really about how someone lived rather than that they died.
- “Funeral Blues (Stop All the Clocks)” by W. H. Auden. more raw than most, The “He was my North, my South, my East and West” lines are the famous ones. A strong choice when you don’t want anything that talks about grief in a neat and tidy way.
- “She Is Gone (He Is Gone)” by David Harkins. Read at the Queen Mother’s funeral, which is partly why it took off. It moves you from mourning toward remembering with a smile so it works well near the end of a service.
- “Footprints in the Sand.” The familiar piece about looking back over your life and seeing one set of footprints during the hardest times because you were being carried. A comfort to a lot of religious families.
If you’d rather keep to readings you can use freely then everything in the sections above is yours to read, print or put in an order of service.
How to Choose a Funeral Reading
With this many options it can be difficult to make a decision. This is how I’d narrow it down.
- Start with the person. Were they religious or not? Funny or serious? Did they love the sea, the garden, music, a particular faith? Let that point you to a section before doing anything else.
- Read it out loud. A reading that looks lovely on the page can trip you up when spoken. If you stumble over it now you’ll stumble over it on the day.
- Match it to the reader. A grieving spouse might only manage a few short lines. Leave the longer pieces for someone who will be able to manage them.
- Don’t be afraid to shorten it. Most of these poems read beautifully as just a verse or two. There’s no time you have to hit.
- Check with the officiant. If it’s a church service there may be a few rules about what fits so it’s worth having a quick word with them before you decide on anything.
Who Usually Reads at a Funeral?
There’s no rule about who reads but it’s usually a close family member, good friend or the officiant. Some families split it so two or three people each take a short reading.
If nobody feels able to do it on the day then asking the celebrant or minister to read on the family’s behalf is a perfectly normal choice and one nobody will think of as odd.
Funeral Readings FAQ
How long should a funeral reading be?
Most funeral readings are roughly between 30 seconds and two minutes when read aloud. That’s about one to four short stanzas or a single Bible passage. If a piece feels too long it’s fine to read just a verse or two.
How many readings should a funeral have?
There’s no set number but most services include one to three readings. A religious service often has two, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, and a celebration of life might have just one poem.
What is a good non-religious funeral reading?
“Death Is Nothing at All” by Henry Scott Holland, “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye and “Gone From My Sight” by Henry Van Dyke are three of the most loved secular readings.
Can you write your own funeral reading?
Absolutely. A few sentences about who the person was and what they meant to you can be more moving than a famous poem. If you’d like some help writing it then our guide on how to write a eulogy offers sone good tips.
A Few Final Thoughts
There’s no perfect funeral reading. You just want one that fits the person you’re saying goodbye to.
Don’t get too consumed with finding the “right” words. The right words are usually the ones that made you pause as you read down this page.
If you’re still putting the service together you might find our guides on funeral poems, what to say at a funeral and how to write a eulogy useful too.
