Robin poems for funerals: poetry about robins and loved ones
Are you looking for a poem to read at a funeral? Explore 8 beautiful poems about robins that could feel appropriate for the service.
Poetry often plays an important role in funerals. It can be used to reflect the personality and interests of the person who has died and to stir the feelings of the people in attendance.
Sometimes, however, it's not easy to choose the right poem for the occasion. Perhaps you're not confident about poetry as a whole or are unsure about the taste of the person who has died. Perhaps you're worried about getting the tone wrong.
Here at AFD, we work with people from all walks of life to arrange the funerals they want. One thing we've learned is that when it comes to funerals, there's rarely a right or wrong way to do things.
If you think the poem is suitable for the funeral, it probably is. Your main thought should be whether it chimes with the memory of the person you're remembering.
In this article, we take a look at eight poems about robins and loved ones that range from the joyful to the melancholy. We hope they help you make a choice that's right for you and the person who died.
Eight poems about robins and loved ones
1. "The Visitor" by K.M. Ehmed
In K.M. Ehmed's "The Visitor", the narrator is grieving and confides in a robin. "How you'd left me all alone", they say. "How much I miss your loving heart, the place I called my home."
The robin answers silently that "We do not lose our loved ones... / Our bonds, they last forever they're not broken when we die".
Could the robin in the poem be the spirit of the person who died? When the narrator asks the bird, it answers simply: "I love you too."
2. "Little Robin" by John F. Conner
A poem from the bird's perspective, "Little Robin" is about constancy and reassurance – a sentiment that could comfort and reassure at a difficult time:
I am that little robin
In your garden every day
I will never leave you
I will never fly away
3. "The Robin" by Witter Bynner
North American poet Witter Bynner's "The Robin" is about the beauty of everyday life.
The poet begins by listing the birds he's never heard sing. It's a list of birds familiar to anyone who's flicked through a poetry book: the nightingale, the dove, the cuckoo and the "lark ascending".
The perspective of the poem then swivels on the word "But":
But I have felt a pulse-beat start
Because a robin, spending
The utmost of his simple art
Some of his pleasure to impart
While twilight came descending,
Has found an answer in my heart,
A sudden comprehending.
4. "The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound" by Sallie Wolfe
For many people, nature provides a companion – and this sense of companionship can increase as time goes by.
This is the feeling expressed in Sallie Wolfe's short poem for children, "The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound". It captures the feeling of nature always being there for you:
The robin makes a laughing sound.
It makes me stop and look around.
These opening lines return, slightly altered, at the end of the poem, just as every robin is the same yet different:
The robin makes a laughing sound.
I stop. I always look around.
Read "The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound".
5. "To the First Robin" by Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott is best known as the author of the classic novel
Little Women. But she also wrote dozens of poems, including this simple, celebratory ode to the coming of spring:
Welcome, welcome, little stranger,
Fear no harm, and fear no danger;
We are glad to see you here,
For you sing, "Sweet Spring is near."
With its theme of renewal, "To the First Robin" could be a suitable choice for the funeral of a loved one.
6. "Winter" by Walter de la Mare
Beginning with the word "And", Walter de la Mare's simple poem "Winter" plunges us into a winter scene – and across the scene flies a robin:
And the robin flew
Into the air, the air,
The white mist through…
The poem then pulls back to reveal the night sky, from "the silver moon and stars" to "Orion's hair". It's a poem about nature, big and small – something that can resonate at a time of mourning.
7. "The Blossom" by William Blake
Taken from his 1789 collection of illustrated poems, William Blake's "The Blossom" is a celebration of innocence, natural beauty and a strange, unexplained sorrow:
Pretty Pretty Robin
Under leaves so green
A happy Blossom
Hears you sobbing sobbing
Pretty Pretty Robin
Near my Bosom.
The poem's combination of innocence and experience could make it a moving choice for a funeral, especially if the person who died was a nature lover.
8. "The Robin is the One" by Emily Dickinson
In some poems, the robin has a melancholy or lonely quality. But in Emily Dickinson's short poem "The Robin is the One", the bird feels more like an angel – and a reminder of home:
The Robin is the One
That overflow the Noon
With her cherubic quantity -
An April but begun
It's a poem that celebrates the passing of the seasons and the cheerful exuberance of a pretty bird.
AFD is an independent London funeral director. Visit our blog for more funeral ideas, including poetry, songs and readings.
