If I Should Go

If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone
Nor when I’m gone speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves that I have known
Weep if you must
Parting is hell
But life goes on
So sing as well.

OverView

A short, direct, and unsentimental poem asking loved ones to remain their usual selves after the speaker’s death. It acknowledges the pain of parting but firmly encourages life and even song to continue, rejecting elaborate mourning rituals.

Share:

If someone has died, Our Family is here to help you.

Find your nearest office below or request a call back.

orpington
bromley
beckenham
west-wickham
dulwich
biggin-hill
petts-wood
camberwell
sidcup
bexleyheath
eltham

More Funeral

Feel no guilt in laughter, they’d know how much you care.
Feel no sorrow in a smile that they’re not here to share.
You cannot grieve forever; they would not want you to.
They’d hope that you could carry on the way you always do.
So, talk about the good times and the way you showed you cared,
The days you spent together, all the happiness you shared.
Let memories surround you, a word someone may say
Will suddenly recapture a time, an hour, a day,
That brings them back as clearly as though they were still here,
And fills you with the feeling that they are always near.
For if you keep those moments, you will never be apart
And they will live forever locked safely within your heart.
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to 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 we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, ‘There, she is gone’

Gone where? Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me — not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, ‘There, she is gone,’
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, ‘Here she comes!’

And that is dying…
Just close your eyes and you will see all the memories that you have of me

Just sit and relax and you will find, I’m really still there inside your mind.

Don’t cry for me now I’m gone, for I am in the land of song.

There is no pain, there is no fear, so dry away that silent tear

Don’t think of me in the dark and cold. for here I am, no longer old.

I’m in that place that’s filled with love, known to you all, as “up above”.
I cannot say and I will not say
That he is dead, he is just away.
With a cheery smile and a wave of hand
He has wandered into an unknown land;
And left us dreaming how very fair
Its needs must be, since he lingers there.
And you-oh you, who the wildest yearn
From the old-time step and the glad return-
Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of there, as the love of here
Think of him still the same way, I say;
He is not dead, he is just away.

"We Decided to Use Udens and It was the best decision we ever made"

Watch a video testimonial from Juliet, for whom we had the honour of conducting her mother’s funeral service.

If someone has died, Our Family is here to help you.

Find your nearest office below or request a call back.

orpington
bromley
beckenham
west-wickham
dulwich
biggin-hill
petts-wood
camberwell
sidcup
bexleyheath
eltham
Google Rating
5.0
Based on 1653 reviews
×
js_loader