The mystery of who penned funeral poem

[Eldorado 57,306]

Ohio-born Mary Elizabeth Frye wasn’t much of a poet. In fact, prior to setting pen to brown paper on a shopping bag one day in 1932, in Baltimore, the florist said she had never written a poem.

Despite this, the words she scribbled down—a set of impassioned lines allegedly inspired by a German-Jewish friend who couldn’t travel back to Germany to see her gravely ill mother, due to the rise in antisemitism—soon took on a life of their own.

After sharing the poem with several peers, it then circulated anonymously far and wide. Over the decades it was read at Hollywood directors’ funerals, appeared in BBC broadcasts, and was even carved into a stone at the Everest Memorial.

Now, if you Google “funeral poem” you’ll likely find Frye’s “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” among the top results.

Full article at Prospect magazine: Link

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

Source: Family Friendly Poems

Edited Monday at 11:38 AM by Eldorado