Remembering a nature lover: 5 poems about gardens for funerals
Reading a poem can add a personal touch to a funeral service. Here are 5 poems for nature lovers.
Many people choose to read a poem or poems at the funeral of a loved one. As part of a tribute, it can reflect the person's interests and personality and encourage the attendees to reflect.
There are many, many poems about gardens and gardening. There's even a wide-ranging anthology,
Poems for Gardeners, edited by Germaine Greer.
These poems often talk about the cycles of birth and death, the changing of the seasons and the beauty of the natural world. It's perhaps this combination of topics that makes a poem about gardening so suitable for the funeral of a nature lover.
Here, then, are five poems about gardens and gardening. We hope it helps you get your emotions across at the funeral.
1. Robert Frost: After Apple-Picking
American poet Robert Frost wrote many poems about life and death. His lyric "Nothing Gold Can Stay", for instance, is a short exploration of the passage of time.
On the surface, "After Apple-Picking" is a poem about, well, apple-picking. It's told from the perspective of a person who's spent the day picking apples and is drifting off to sleep:
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
The poem is suitable for the funeral of a nature lover for two reasons. First, it captures the way memories of nature stick around. As the poet drowses off, he can still feel the ladder under his foot: "My instep arch not only keeps the ache, / It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round" (rung).
Secondly, the poem is about wanting to rest. The speaker gets ready for a "long sleep" and mentions Heaven. All in all, it feels like this poem is about much more than just picking apples.
Link:
After Apple-Picking
2. Phoebe Hesketh: Death of a Gardener
When someone dies, it can help people to remember that life goes on. But this can also be a source of sadness. This is the theme of Phoebe Hesketh's poem "Death of a Gardener". In it, a garden returns to its natural state after the gardener dies.
The poem begins in winter – a time of rest for the gardener but not for nature. Snow pads the window and thatches the roof while "mice in the shed scuffled like leaves".
Spring comes and the gardener sets to work again, but "slower his lift and thrust". As his hands continue to work, nature goes on as normal. A blackbird sings, a worm coils and seedlings grow.
It's a gentle poem written with a gardener's eye, and its theme of nature continuing after a person dies makes it a suitable choice for the funeral of a nature lover.
Link:
Death of a Gardener
3. Philip Larkin: Cut Grass
"All flesh is grass," the Bible says. Could the cut grass in Philip Larkin's short poem be a symbol for death?
Cut grass lies frail:
Brief is the breath
Mown stalks exhale.
The poem is about natural beauty as much as it's about death. The words move like a camera, panning out to reveal a beautiful summer scene. From "chestnut flowers" and "hedges", we move to "lost lanes of Queen Ann's lace". Finally, the camera tilts upward to reveal "that high-builded cloud / Moving at summer's pace."
Like Hesketh in "Death of a Gardener", Larkin seems to be saying that nature goes on after we're gone. This could be a moving choice for the funeral of a nature lover.
Link:
Cut Grass
4. Douglas Dunn: Modern Love
The poems so far have been about individuals and landscapes. This poem by Douglas Dunn is about a couple on a peaceful holiday:
It is summer, and we are in a house
That is not ours, sitting at a table
Enjoying minutes of a rented silence.
The garden is sleepy and overgrown. In this moment of peace, Dunn thinks about happiness:
Our lives flap, and we have no hope of better
Happiness than this, not much to show for love
Than how we are, or how this evening is,
Unpeopled, silent, and where we are alive
In a domestic love
Happiness, Dunn seems to be saying, is made up of moments of calm domestic love, with the couple "looking forward to a visit from the cat".
With its focus on simple pleasures, "Modern Love" could be a moving choice of poem for someone mourning the death of their partner.
Link:
Modern Love
5. Louis MacNeice: The Sunlight on the Garden
"Poetry, in my opinion, must be honest before anything else." Those are the words of Irish poet Louis MacNeice in the introduction to his long poem Autumn Journal.
His poem "Sunlight on the Garden" is proof that he walked the walk as well as talked the talk. It's a moving, honest poem about the passing of time and the beauty of nature.
The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold…
Death is on its way, with the speaker saying, "Soon, my friend, / We shall have no time for dances."
In this mood of sadness, MacNeice looks for a silver lining. What can keep us going when we know death is coming? The answer comes in the last verse: gratitude for time spent with another person:
And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.
With its themes of natural beauty, the passing of time and thankfulness for precious moments, "Sunlight on the Garden" is the perfect choice for the funeral of a nature lover.
Link:
Sunlight on the Garden
Akshardham Funeral Directors is an independent
Harrow funeral home. We provide patient, tailored guidance to help people plan the funerals they want. If you need our support, please call 020 8355 7876 – lines are open all day, 365 days a year.
