When you’re saying goodbye to someone who served in the military or their country it can feel like ordinary words aren’t enough. A veteran’s life has dealt with something most us will never understand and a funeral is the moment to honor that. The right poem can do all of that for you when your own voice won’t.
We’ve got a collection of funeral poems for a veteran below that work beautifully for a service, a graveside reading, a memorial program or a card inside some flowers. Some are short enough to work on a prayer card. Others are full readings that should be said put aloud. Several were written by soldiers themselves, men who knew exactly what they were writing about.
If you’re also trying to find the words you’ll speak our military eulogy examples and condolence messages for veterans and soldiers go well with anything you choose here. And our main funeral poems has many more if you want to keep looking.
Short Funeral Poems for a Veteran
Sometimes you only need a few lines. These short poems work well on a memorial card, a folded program or read aloud. If you need more shorter options you’ll find them in our short funeral verses for cards.
A Soldier’s Rest
The duty’s done, the watch is through,
The final post now stands at ease.
No more the march, no more the call,
Just quiet rest and lasting peace.
Original verse
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Taps
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Fading light, dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh,
Falls the night.
Traditional
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He Answered the Call
He gave his years, he gave his pride,
He stood the line and never lied.
And when at last his service ceased,
He laid it down and went in peace.
Original verse
Funeral Poems for a Fallen Soldier
These are for the ones who didn’t come home or who carried the war with them all their lives. A few were written in the trenches by soldiers who would not survive them.
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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The Soldier
by Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
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I Have a Rendezvous with Death
by Alan Seeger
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
Patriotic Funeral Poems to Honor a Veteran
If your loved one was proud of their country and their service then a patriotic poem can say what the medals and the folded flag are already saying without words.
For the Fallen
by Laurence Binyon
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
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The Bivouac of the Dead
by Theodore O’Hara
The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat
The soldier’s last tattoo;
No more on Life’s parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.
No rumor of the foe’s advance
Now swells upon the wind;
No troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind;
No vision of the morrow’s strife
The warrior’s dream alarms;
No braying horn nor screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.
These lines are inscribed at the entrances of many national cemeteries, including Arlington.
Religious Funeral Poems for a Veteran
For a service that is based around their faith these poems frame a veteran’s death as a homecoming and a final rest. They will work well with a prayer or scripture reading.
Crossing the Bar
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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.
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Requiem
by Robert Louis Stevenson
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.
A Poem for the Folded Flag
The flag-folding ceremony is one of the most moving parts of a military funeral. A short reading as the flag is presented to the family gives the moment room to breathe.
The Flag You Carried Home
Thirteen folds, each one a vow,
Of service given, kept somehow.
We place it gently in your hands,
A nation’s thanks that always stands.
He served with honor, served with pride,
And kept his post until he died.
This flag was earned, not simply given,
A soldier’s faith from earth to heaven.
Original verse
More Poems Families Often Choose for a Veteran
There are some poems that come up again and again at military and veteran funerals. We can’t reprint these in full because they’re still under copyright but they’re easy to find through your funeral director, a hymn or reading book or a quick search, and any of them would work very well for a veteran:
- “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr – written by a young aviator, it’s an aviation favorite often read for pilots and air force veterans.
- “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye – a comforting poem that works for any service member.
- “The Final Inspection” (also known as “A Soldier’s Prayer”) – a poem imagining a soldier meeting God, popular at military funerals.
- “It Is the Soldier” by Charles M. Province – a tribute to everything a soldier’s service protects.
If you’d like more readings to round out the service our funeral poems for sailors are going to be a good starting point for navy veterans, and our funeral quotes page has shorter poems you can use in a program or card.
How to Use a Funeral Poem for a Veteran
There’s no right way to use of these into a service. A few things tend to help:
- Pick a reader who can keep it together. These poems are emotional and can catch up to a reader in the middle of reading them. Choose someone who is steady and have a backup ready just in case.
- Match the poem to the person. A career soldier, a drafted veteran and a peacetime serviceman lived very different versions of service. Choose the poem that sounds like the person you knew, not the most famous one.
- Mind the timing. A short poem suits the flag presentation or graveside committal. A longer reading like “In Flanders Fields” works better earlier, as part of the eulogy or as a standalone reading.
- Put it in the program. Printing the poem lets everyone follow along and gives the family something to keep. It also means the words live on past the day itself.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a poem for a veteran’s funeral is always going go be difficult. You’re making sure the years they gave and the country they served all get said out loud one last time. The right words honor a life that asked for very little and gave a great deal.
When you’re ready for the rest of the service our military eulogy examples, obituary examples for a veteran and condolence messages for veterans and soldiers will help you find the rest of the words. And if you’re supporting someone else through this loss, what to say at a funeral is a good place to start.
