Losing a son and how that feels is impossible to put in to words. It doesn’t matter if he was a tiny boy or a grown man with a family of his own. He was your son and someone you could never imagine passing away.
When the time comes to plan his funeral or memorial a poem can say more than your own words ever could. Funeral poems have a way of getting across the feelings that you might struggle with otherwise.
So I’ve bought together some of the most fitting funeral poems for a son. Some are short enough for a memorial card or the back of an order of service. Others are longer and made for reading aloud. A few are written from a mother’s heart and some speak for both parents.
Short Funeral Poems for a Son
These shorter verses work well on memorial cards, in a funeral program or as a line in a eulogy.
A Thousand Times
A thousand times we’ll miss you,
a thousand times we’ll cry.
If love alone could’ve saved you,
you never would have died.
By Unknown
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Our Boy
You were our greatest hope,
our brightest, boldest joy.
And nothing time can take from us
the love we hold for our boy.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
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Long Enough
No length of years could ever feel
like long enough with you.
But what a gift to be the ones
who got to love you through.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
Funeral Poems for a Son
These longer poems are made for reading aloud at the service or sharing in a tribute.
Our Son
We watched you grow from those first cries
to the man you came to be,
and every single day of it
was a gift you gave to me.
You filled this house with noise and light,
with questions, plans and dreams,
and even now you fill it still
in quiet, aching streams.
So we will carry you, dear son,
in everything we do,
because a love this big and bright
was only ever you.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
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Half of Me
They ask me how I’m holding up,
I never know what’s true.
For how do you describe a world
that’s missing half of you?
But then I hear you in a song,
or catch you in the rain,
and somehow in that little while
I have you back again.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
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God Saw You Getting Tired
God saw you getting tired,
when a cure was not to be.
So He wrapped His arms around you,
and whispered “Come to me.”
You didn’t deserve what you went through,
so He gave you rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful,
He only takes the best.
By Unknown
Funeral Poems for the Loss of a Young Son
When you lose a little boy the grief is like nothing else. These verses are written for the children gone too soon.
Such Little Shoes
Such little shoes, such little hands,
such big, enormous love.
You came to us a gift from earth
and left a star above.
We didn’t get the years we’d planned,
the school days or the rest,
but in the time we had with you
we surely were the blessed.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
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Sleep Softly
Sleep softly now, our little man,
our brave and gentle boy.
You were and always will remain
our purest, deepest joy.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
Funeral Poems for a Son from a Mother
A mother’s grief is its own thing entirely. This one speaks for the mom who carried him first and will carry him always.
I Carried You
I carried you before the world
had ever heard your name,
and I will carry you, my son,
through every grief and pain.
A mother’s love does not run out,
it does not fade or end,
so I’ll keep loving you, my boy,
my child, my heart, my friend.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
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From Mom and Dad
We gave you all the love we had
and you gave back much more.
We’d do it all a thousand times,
just like we did before.
By Sally, Sympathy Message Ideas
Classic Poems for a Son’s Funeral
Sometimes the old and classic poems are just right. These are public domain poems that families have used in these sorts of situations for generations and each one suits a son beautifully.
Crossing the Bar
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.
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Remember
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 planned:
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.
By Christina Rossetti
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Death Is Nothing at All
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.
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?
By Henry Scott Holland
A Few More Poems Worth Looking Up
A handful of beloved funeral poems are still under copyright, so I can’t reprint them here, but they’re easy to find and well worth reading for a son’s service:
- He Is Gone (often called “You can shed tears that he is gone”) by David Harkins
- Afterglow by Helen Lowrie Marshall
- Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye
Choosing the Right One for Your Son
You can’t go wrong with any of the poems here. Read a few of them out loud, even quietly to yourself, and notice which one just feels right. You’ll usually know quickly the one that fits him.
If you’d like more ways to put your love into words you might find comfort in our loss of son quotes or our example eulogies for a son. And if you’re still getting together some ideas then our main collection of funeral poems and our poems about grief have more.
