When someone with Irish roots dies the words read at their funeral are quite often as important as the music. Ireland has a long tradition of poetry about home and loss and a good Irish poem can say what a room full of grieving people feels but can’t put into words.
This page has lots of Irish funeral poems you can read at a Mass, a graveside or a wake. Most are by well known Irish poets like W.B. Yeats, Thomas Moore, Oscar Wilde and Francis Ledwidge. There are also some short verses for Mass cards and programs, a few modern poems worth looking up and some tips for reading a poem aloud.
If you’re after the short traditional sayings, like “May the road rise to meet you”, we have a separate page of Irish blessings for funerals and death. And if none of these feel right our main collection of funeral poems has many more.
Classic Irish Funeral Poems
These are some of the best loved poems by Irish poets that families choose for a funeral. Not all of them were written about death but each one has a way of fitting the moment.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
By W.B. Yeats
This one is lovely for someone who always talked about going home be that to Ireland or just somewhere quiet.
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The Last Rose of Summer
‘Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie wither’d,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
By Thomas Moore
Moore wrote this to be sung so many families have it played rather than read. It suits an older person who outlived many of their friends.
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Oft, in the Stilly Night
Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood’s years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm’d and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
When I remember all
The friends, so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall,
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
By Thomas Moore
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Into the Twilight
Out-worn heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the grey twilight,
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Your mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight grey;
Though hope fall from you and love decay,
Burning in fires of a slanderous tongue.
Come, heart, where hill is heaped upon hill:
For there the mystical brotherhood
Of sun and moon and hollow and wood
And river and stream work out their will;
And God stands winding His lonely horn,
And time and the world are ever in flight;
And love is less kind than the grey twilight,
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.
By W.B. Yeats
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To One Dead
A blackbird singing
On a moss-upholstered stone,
Bluebells swinging,
Shadows wildly blown,
A song in the wood,
A ship on the sea.
The song was for you
And the ship was for me.
A blackbird singing
I hear in my troubled mind,
Bluebells swinging
I see in a distant wind.
But sorrow and silence
Are the wood’s threnody,
The silence for you
And the sorrow for me.
By Francis Ledwidge
Ledwidge was a young poet from County Meath who wrote this while serving in the First World War. It’s short and simple which makes it one of the easiest poems here to read out loud.
Irish Poems for a Husband or Wife
Love poems are often read at funerals for a spouse. These two by Yeats are about a love that lasts beyond youth and beauty. They’re tough to get through without crying though.
When You Are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
By W.B. Yeats
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He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
By W.B. Yeats
It’s only eight lines, so it also works printed on the back of a program or a memorial card.
SEE MORE: Funeral Poems for a Wife
Irish Poems for a Sister or a Young Person
Losing someone young is always tragic. Oscar Wilde wrote this poem for his little sister Isola who died when she was a child and it’s one of the gentlest elegies I know.
Requiescat
Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.
All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.
Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.
Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone,
She is at rest.
Peace, Peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life’s buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
By Oscar Wilde
Some families read just the first and fourth verses which keeps how tense it is without getting to the more heavy lines. You’ll find more poems in our funeral poems for a sister.
Irish Poems for a Veteran or a Life Cut Short
Ireland lost a lot of young men to war and its poets wrote about it with real feeling. These suit a veteran’s funeral or anyone who died too soon.
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
By W.B. Yeats
Yeats wrote this for Robert Gregory, the son of his friend Lady Gregory, who was killed flying in the First World War. It’s a good choice for a pilot or someone who loved adventure.
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Lament for Thomas MacDonagh
He shall not hear the bittern cry
In the wild sky, where he is lain,
Nor voices of the sweeter birds
Above the wailing of the rain.
Nor shall he know when loud March blows
Thro’ slanting snows her fanfare shrill,
Blowing to flame the golden cup
Of many an upset daffodil.
But when the Dark Cow leaves the moor,
And pastures poor with greedy weeds,
Perhaps he’ll hear her low at morn
Lifting her horn in pleasant meads.
By Francis Ledwidge
Ledwidge wrote this for his friend, the poet Thomas MacDonagh. The “Dark Cow” is an old poetic name for Ireland so the last verse is a sort of quiet hope for better days.
SEE MORE: Funeral Poems for a Veteran
Religious Irish Funeral Poems
Faith runs deep in many Irish families. These two poems are openly Christian so they work well beside the readings at a Catholic funeral Mass or a church service.
I See His Blood Upon the Rose
I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.
By Joseph Mary Plunkett
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Sheep and Lambs
All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road.
The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road;
All in an April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.
The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak human cry;
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.
Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet:
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.
But for the Lamb of God
Up on the hill-top green,
Only a cross of shame
Two stark crosses between.
All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
I saw the sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God.
By Katharine Tynan
This one is especially fitting for a funeral around Easter or for someone who grew up on a farm.
If you’re planning a Mass our list of Catholic funeral readings may help you choose the scripture to go alongside these.
Modern Irish Poems Worth Looking Up
Some of the most moving Irish poems about death were written in the last hundred years. They are still in copyright so we can’t print them here but they are easy to find in a library or bookstore and you can read them aloud at a funeral.
- “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney. About coming home from school for the funeral of his four-year-old brother. Its last line is one people never forget. From his first collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966).
- “Clearances” by Seamus Heaney. A sequence of sonnets for his mother. The third, about peeling potatoes with her while everyone else was at Mass, is often read on its own.
- “In Memory of My Mother” by Patrick Kavanagh. Kavanagh refuses to picture his mother in the grave and remembers her alive instead. Lovely for a mom from rural Ireland.
- “On the Death of the Beloved” by John O’Donohue. A gentle blessing for someone who has died, from his book To Bless the Space Between Us. It has become a favorite at Irish funerals.
- “Beannacht” by John O’Donohue. A blessing poem rather than a funeral poem, but its closing lines, wishing words of love around you like a cloak, give a lot of comfort to the people left behind.
Yeats also wrote his own epitaph, a short three line verse at the end of his poem “Under Ben Bulben”, which is carved on his headstone in Drumcliff churchyard in County Sligo. It’s worth reading if you’re also choosing headstone wording.
Short Irish Verses for Mass Cards and Programs
Sometimes you only have room for a line or two, on a Mass card, a memorial card or the front of an order of service. These are original verses in an Irish spirit that you’re welcome to use or change.
- Gone home to the green hills, where the rain is soft and the fire is lit.
- May the road home be gentle and the welcome warm.
- The kettle’s on in heaven now.
- He loved his family, his garden and a good story. We’ll miss all three.
- She kept the door open and the tea hot for anyone who came by.
- Rest easy now. The work is done and the light is on.
- Far from Ireland, but never far from it in his heart.
- Until we meet again, may God hold you gently.
- A grand life, well lived and well loved.
- The fiddle is quiet tonight, but the tune goes on.
- Our hearts are heavy, but full of you.
- Safe home.
- Laughter was her prayer and kindness was her faith.
- May the soft rain fall on the place you rest.
- Now he walks the hills he always spoke of.
SEE MORE: Short Funeral Verses for Cards
Poems Often Called Irish That Aren’t
You’ll see a few popular funeral poems shared online as “Irish” or as an “old Irish poem”. They’re beautiful but if you’re printing an author’s name it’s good to know where they really come from.
- “Death is nothing at all” comes from a sermon by Henry Scott Holland, an English priest.
- “Do not stand at my grave and weep” is usually credited to Mary Elizabeth Frye, an American.
- “Danny Boy” is sung at countless Irish funerals but the words were written by Frederic Weatherly, an English songwriter, and set to the Irish tune known as the Londonderry Air.
None of that means you can’t use them. Plenty of Irish families do. Just leave off the word “Irish” in the program, or credit the right author.
Tips for Reading an Irish Poem at a Funeral
- At a Catholic funeral Mass the readings are usually from scripture. Ask the priest where a poem can go. It’s often read before the final commendation, at the graveside or at the wake or reception afterward.
- Read the poem out loud a few times beforehand. Older poems like Moore’s have words like “ere” and “nigh” that can trip you up if you meet them for the first time at the lectern.
- Go slowly. Pause at the end of each verse and let the room breathe.
- Say a sentence about why you chose it before you begin like “Dad always said he’d go back to Sligo one day.”
- Print it in a large font and bring a spare copy. If you get emotional it’s fine to stop for a moment or hand it to someone else to finish.
- It’s fine to read only part of a longer poem. Just choose verses that make sense on their own.
An Irish funeral is often a mix of tears and laughter, prayers and stories and a poem can contain all of that at once. I hope one of these feels like it was written for the person you’re saying goodbye to.