Losing a daughter is a grief that words will never be able to justice to. It doesn’t matter if she was your little girl or a grown woman with a life of her own, she was your child. There is nothing fair about it and nothing easy about standing up to speak when you’re falling apart from the grief.
A poem can help. When you can’t find the words yourself a funeral poem can do it for you and say the thing you can’t quite manage to say out loud.
So we’ve have some of the most loving funeral poems for a daughter, from short verses for the back of a service sheet to longer readings for a eulogy or graveside.
Funeral Poems for a Daughter
These are the ones to start with. They work for to a daughter of any age and are the perfect choice for a reading or as a few words at the service.
Our Beautiful Girl
We did not have you long enough,
Though long enough to know
That you were ours to love and hold,
And far too soon to go.
You filled our days with little things,
A laugh, a song, a name,
And though you’ve left this world behind,
Our love stays just the same.
So rest now, darling daughter,
Wherever your heart may roam,
You carried all our love with you,
And one day we’ll come home.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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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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She Was Loved
She was loved from her very first breath,
And she is loved still, beyond her last.
No ending could ever undo
The years we were lucky to have.
Count not the days she was given,
But all that she gave in return,
And know that a daughter so cherished
Is never truly gone.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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Short Funeral Poems for a Daughter
If you need something for the front of an order of service, to put in a memorial card or just for a quick reading then these shorter verses are ideal.
Always Our Daughter
You were ours,
You are ours,
You always will be.
Time does not change
What love made certain.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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A Little While
It was only for a little while
That we got to call you ours,
But a little while of loving you
Was worth a thousand years.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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Goodnight
Sleep now, our darling daughter,
The way you slept as a child,
Safe and warm and watched over,
Until the morning we meet again.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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Funeral Poems for a Young Daughter
There are few things harder than saying goodbye to a little girl. These poems are written for the daughter whose life was far too short.
Such a Small Pair of Shoes
Such a small pair of shoes by the door,
Such a small space you filled,
And yet you left a hole so wide
That all our days are stilled.
We will keep the drawings on the wall,
The bears upon the bed,
And carry every little thing
You ever did or said.
You were here, and you were ours,
However brief your stay,
And nothing in this whole wide world
Will take that love away.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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Tiny and Treasured
You may have been little,
But our love for you is not.
It is as big as all the years
We thought that we had got.
So we will love you in the morning,
And love you through the night,
Our tiny, treasured daughter,
Our small and shining light.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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Funeral Poems for an Adult Daughter
The Woman You Became
We watched you learn to walk and then
We watched you walk away,
Into a life that was your own,
Where you grew strong and gay.
You built a world we marvelled at,
You loved, you worked, you shone,
And though that world has lost its light,
Your goodness lingers on.
We grieve the girl, we grieve the woman,
We grieve the years to come,
But oh, how proud we were of you,
Our brave and lovely one.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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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.
By Henry Scott Holland
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Christian Funeral Poems for a Daughter
For families of faith these verses talk about the comfort of heaven and the promise of reunion. They go well with a scripture reading if you’d like both.
Held in His Hands
We give you back to God today,
The One who gave you first,
And though our arms feel cruelly bare,
And though our hearts are burst,
We trust that you are gathered in,
Safe in the gentlest care,
And when our own long day is done,
We’ll find you waiting there.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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A Daughter Called Home
He needed one more angel,
And of all the world He could choose,
He looked down and He chose our girl,
The one we’d hate to lose.
We do not understand it,
And we may never know the reason why,
But we believe she’s safe with Him,
Beyond the farthest sky.
So go in peace, our daughter,
Until that day we’re reunited,
When every tear is wiped away
And every wrong is righted.
By Sympathy Message Ideas
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Well Known Funeral Poems
You may already have a particular poem in mind. A few of the most requested funeral poems are still under copyright so we can’t reprint them here but they’re easy to find in full and are worth looking up if they feel right for your daughter:
- Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye, a reminder that the one we love lives on.
- She Is Gone (He Is Gone) by David Harkins, the poem that gives us the line about smiling because she lived rather than crying because she’s gone.
- Footprints in the Sand, the well loved poem about being carried through the hardest stretch of the journey.
- The Dash by Linda Ellis, which focuses on the little line between the dates and all the living it stands for.
Any of these can be read in full alongside one of the verses above. Or alternatively print it off and put in a memorial booklet if your family has a favorite.
Choosing the Right Poem for Your Daughter
There’s a few things that help when you’re deciding:
- Read it out loud first. A poem can look lovely on the page and then you find it virtually impossible to read because of the emotion. If you’re going to be the one reading it, practise it a few times so you know it’ll go okay on the day itself.
- Match it to her. A funny, bright girl might suit something warm and light rather than something heavy. Grief counsellors often point out that services which reflect the person, not just the loss, tend to bring more comfort to the people attending.
- Share the load. If reading the poem out feels like too much then ask someone else to read it for you or print it in the order of service.
- It’s allowed to be short. A few lines can be impactful than a long poem. Don’t feel you have to fill time.
Final Thoughts
There is no poem that can ever fully do justice to your daughter. But there are poems that will feel right and on a day when words feel impossible a well chosen verse can be special.
Whichever one you choose what matters most is that it sounds like her and comes from your heart. That’s all anyone in the room will be listening for.
If you’re putting the rest of the service together too you might find our eulogy examples for a daughter helpful along with our loss of a daughter quotes. And if you’re supporting someone else through this our guide on words of sympathy for the loss of a child may help you find what to say.
