Poem for the Dead

[Androxine Vortex]

I have a scene where a minor character passes away and the remaining characters have a moment of silence in respect I want one character to sing a song/poem for the character who passed away. I can't think of a good poem and have tried searching for poems online but have had little time and didn't find anything yet. This character wasn't a warrior so no nordic style eulogy, just want something to say in memory (I'm would like to use something very symbolic with a lot of symbolism. So if you have any useful links I would appreciate to look at them and try to get some inspiration)

 

[AnnaBlixt]

Death (Yeats)

NOR dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone --
Man has created death.

"Death" W.B. Yeats ~ Pallimed: Arts and Humanities

I think this poem is really moving and I really love Yeats, but it might be a bit dark for a eulogy perhaps.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Yeah and it makes it sound like its for a warrior. But I appreciate your post.

And don't want to confuse anyone reading this, I'm not going to plagiarize a poem/song I'm just asking for some examples for inspiration.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Still can't find anything useful...

 

[Alex Beecroft]

This is the one I immediately think of, though anyone else who ever saw Four Weddings and a Funeral would also immediately think of it

W. H. Auden:


Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

 

[Ireth]

First thing that came to mind for me was Tennyson's In Memoriam A.H.H., which sadly is far too long to post in full here without taking up a dozen or more posts. But here's the first part:

Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;

Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.

Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood, thou:
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.

Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

We have but faith: we cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see;
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.

Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before,

But vaster. We are fools and slight;
We mock thee when we do not fear:
But help thy foolish ones to bear;
Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light.

Forgive what seem’d my sin in me;
What seem’d my worth since I began;
For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.

Forgive my grief for one removed,
Thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.

Forgive these wild and wandering cries,
Confusions of a wasted youth;
Forgive them where they fail in truth,
And in thy wisdom make me wise.