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When I Am Dead, My Dearest

This brief poem by famous Victorian poet Christina Rossetti is a popular choice for funerals and memorial services because of the narrator’s request that her or his loved ones do not dwell in grief for their death, but continue to live life after they are gone.

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget..
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain;
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember
And haply may forget.

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