Funeral poemsFuneral poems for a veteran

Funeral poems for a veteran

Poems for someone who served. They suit a funeral where that part of a life is honoured out loud, whether or not anyone is in uniform.

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4 poems

For the Fallen

This poem is for anyone who served, and especially someone who died young in uniform. Right for a family who want the words everybody in the room will already know.

A classicFor a veteran

1914

15 sec

Invictus

This poem is for someone who got dealt a hard hand and never let it decide who they were. The person others called stubborn and you would call brave.

A classicFor a veteran

1888

50 sec

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

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The Life That I Have

This poem is for a widow or widower, and anyone who served. Right for a love that was certain, and someone who never went in for big words.

For a partnerFor a veteran

1943

We are not licensed to show this poem here. You can still read it aloud at a funeral.

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The Soldier

This poem is for someone who served, and especially anyone who died far from home. Right for a family who want something formal and proud.

A classicFor a veteran

1915

55 sec

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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