Funeral Poems For a Partner

There’s no right or wrong way to express yourself when your partner passes away. Many people find poetry useful for putting their feelings into words. Whether you’re choosing a funeral reading for your partner, need a quote to complement a eulogy, or seek comfort in poetry, some of the poems below could help.

Funeral poems and readings for a partner

My Journey’s Just Begun – Anonymous

You may have heard this uplifting funeral poem read as “His Journey’s Just Begun”, “Her Journey’s Just Begun” or “Their Journey’s Just Begun”. It’s completely fine to change the pronouns to fit the person you’re doing the reading for.

“Don’t think of me as gone away
My journey’s just begun
Life holds so many facets
This earth is but one
Just think of me as resting
From the sorrows and the tears
In a place of warmth and comfort
Where there are no days and years
Think of how I must be wishing
That you could know today
How nothing but your sadness
Can really go away
And think of me as living
In the hearts of those I touched
For nothing loved is ever lost
And I know I was loved so much”

Because I Love You So – Anonymous

This short poem regularly appears as a favourite among people coping with the loss of a partner. It places emphasis on your partner being gone but not forgotten and the love that you’ll always hold for them.

“Time will not dim the face I love,
The voice I heard each day,
The many things you did for me,
In your own special way.
All my life I’ll miss you,
As the years come and go,
But in my heart I’ll keep you,
Because I love you so.”

Love Lives On – Anonymous

Love Lives On is just eight lines long and is written in modern English. This makes it ideal if you’re nervous about reading at a funeral or if you’re looking for words to use in a book of remembrance. The gender-neutral phrasing means you don’t have to make any adaptations.

“Those we love remain with us
for love itself lives on,
and cherished memories never fade
because a loved one’s gone.
Those we love can never
be more than a thought apart,
far as long as there is memory,
they’ll live on in the heart.”

I Carry Your Heart With Me – E. E. Cummings

I Carry Your Heart With Me expresses how you will always carry the memory and love of your partner. This poem looks a little different written down to other poems we’re used to. The video below shows one way you can read it. Remember, you can read your chosen poem however you like. It’s completely normal to take breaks and gaps when you need.

“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)”

I Thought of You With Love Today – Anonymous

It’s normal to think of your partner a lot when they have passed away. This short poem reflects on this, highlighting how they will always hold a place in your heart.

“I thought of you with love today
but that is nothing new
I thought about you yesterday
and days before that too.

I think of you in silence
I often speak your name
All I have are memories
and your picture in a frame

Your memory is my keepsake
with which I'll never part
God has you in his keeping
I have you in my heart.”