When someone we love passes away, our emotions, thoughts, and memories can become overwhelming and hard to articulate. However, poetry can often depict the whole picture in times of loss, whether the speaker has experienced the death of a loved one or is the deceased person speaking from beyond the grave.
Whether you are struggling to find the perfect words to say at a funeral, feel grief for someone dear to you who has passed away, or are curious about the human reaction to loss, these poems about the death of a loved one can offer you insight, peace, and understanding.
‘Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep’ by Mary Frye, written with heartfelt compassion, has touched millions experiencing loss and grief.
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.
In ‘Farewell’ by Anne Bronte, the speaker expresses a deep desire to hold onto positive and happy memories of someone she has lost.
Farewell to thee! but not farewell
To all my fondest thoughts of thee:
Within my heart they still shall dwell;
And they shall cheer and comfort me.
In ‘The Gardener LXI: Peace, My Heart’ by Rabindranath Tagore, readers will encounter a depiction of death that is peaceful and completely natural.
Peace, my heart, let the time for
the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Romano’s ‘When Tomorrow Starts Without Me’ offers solace in grief, exploring love and afterlife, reassures that loved ones remain forever.
When tomorrow starts without me
And I’m not here to see
If the sun should rise and find your eyes
All filled with tears for me
‘Death of a Teacher’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a moving poem. In it, the poet discusses a personal loss she suffered and how it affected her.
The big trees outside are into their poker game again,
shuffling and dealing, turning, folding, their leaves
drifting down to the lawn, floating away, ace high,
on a breeze. You died yesterday.
‘A Pæan’ describes the feelings experienced by a husband as he views his dead wife and his desire to sing a “pæan” rather than a “requiem.”
How shall the burial rite be read?
The solemn song be sung ?
The requiem for the loveliest dead,
That ever died so young?
‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney describes the emotional turmoil experienced by a speaker who has lost a loved one in a traumatic way.
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.
‘On the Death of Anne Brontë’ by Charlotte Brontë describes the poet’s grief over her beloved sister’s death and her relief that Anne’s suffering has ended.
There's little joy in life for me,
And little terror in the grave;
I 've lived the parting hour to see
Of one I would have died to save.
‘Death of a Young Woman’ by Gillian Clarke depicts how a loved one’s death lets a person free from their inward, endless suffering.
He wept for her and for the hard tasks
He had lovingly done, for the short,
Fierce life she had lived in the white bed,
For the burden he had put down for good.
‘To a Dead Friend’ by Langston Hughes is a depressing poem about the ways death can permanently alter one’s ability to see or feel joy.
The moon still sends its mellow light
Through the purple blackness of the night;
The morning star is palely bright
Before the dawn.
‘Before She Died’ by Karen Chase is a poem about how someone’s death, or impending death, changes the way that one understands the world.
When I look at the sky now, I look at it for you.
As if with enough attention, I could take it in for you.
With all the leaves gone almost from
the trees, I did not walk briskly through the field.
‘After’ by Marston captures the eternal ache of loss, where brief joys transition to lasting sorrow, reflecting on grief’s permanence.
A LITTLE time for laughter,
— A little time to sing,
— A little time to kiss and cling,
And no more kissing after.
‘Sea Canes’ by Derek Walcott is a beautiful and deeply sad poem about loss. It uses the natural world to imply that there are ways to feel close to those one has lost again.
Half my friends are dead.
I will make you new ones, said earth.
No, give me them back, as they were, instead,
‘Crossing the Bar’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson presents the journey from life into death as if calmly advancing into a new phase.
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,
‘Orpheus Confesses to Eurydice’ is Sujata Bhatt’s retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, as she presents Orpheus’ response, blending sorrow and satire in the poem.
I've caught the snake
that killed you—I keep him
alive. He's become a sort of pet—
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