19 Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father | Cake Blog (2024)

Poets have a way of describing complex feelings and emotions. If you are experiencing grief following your father's death, these poems may speak to you.

Jump ahead to these sections:

• Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father for a Funeral or Memorial Service
• Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father to Share on His Death Anniversary
• Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father to Share When You’re Missing Him
• Short Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father to Share on Social Media

We’ll provide you with poem ideas for your father’s funeral and ones you might share on social media. However, we will also give you some poems about death that you might not feel comfortable sharing with others because they describe a personal and deep pain.

We’ll start with some of the most common funeral poems for dads, moms, or other loved ones.

Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father for a Funeral or Memorial Service

If you are working with a full-service funeral home to plan your dad’s service, one of the staff members may provide you with a list of common funeral poems. Some may be specific funeral poems for your dad, but most could work for the service of any loved one.

Here are some poems to consider.

1. “Nashville on God’s Radio” by Michael Ashby

We like offering poem ideas to those who aren’t typical poetry enthusiasts. Michael Ashby writes accessible funeral poems, like this one describing the death of a cowboy.

The first stanza states:

“Pur spurs on the foot of my coffin
Put my comfiest boots on my feet
Put my hat on to face the future dow
Then ride out to my final meet.”

2. “The Golf Course in the Sky” by Michael Ashby

If your dad enjoyed hitting the links, consider finding a golf-themed funeral poem to share at his funeral. This is another one by Michael Ashby. It ends:

“Surrounded by old club friends
Once thought never to be seen again
The infinity course reckoned ahead
Eighteen holes were for mere mortal men.”

3. “The Ship” by Bishop Brent

We love this poem on many levels. It would be perfect for a person of faith who also happened to enjoy sailing or the idea of life at sea.

It describes mourners standing on the shore of life, watching their loved one who died disappear into the unknown sea of the afterlife. The mourners look at the boat and say, “she is gone!”

However, others on the other side of the sea soon after view the ship's way to their shore. They yell out in joy, “There she comes!”

If you are sure your loved one is enjoying a reunion with those who passed away before him, this would be a perfect funeral poem.

4. “There Is a Solemn Wind Tonight” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Some funeral poems give a euphemistic view of death. However, this one describes the sadness your family may feel following the death of a great man. Here’s the poem in its entirety:

“There is a solemn wind to-night
That sings of solemn rain;
The trees that have been quiet so long
Flutter and start again.
The slender trees, the heavy trees,
The fruit trees laden and proud,
Lift up their branches to the wind
That cries to them so loud.
The little bushes and the plants
Bow to the solemn sound,
And every tiniest blade of grass
Shakes on the quiet ground.”

Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father to Share on His Death Anniversary

Some days will be harder than others following the death of your father. Significant dates such as birth dates or death anniversaries are difficult to endure for many. Others miss their dads when they catch a scent of a specific cologne or watch their dad’s favorite team win in overtime.

Here are some more poems about dads to read or share on one of those hard days.

5. “Fathers Are Wonderful People” by Helen Steiner Rice

Helen Steiner Rice is a prolific poet who wrote about both her Heavenly Father and earthly father. This poem describes a dad who doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. It includes this stanza:

“And like Our Heavenly Father,
He's a guardian and a guide,
Someone that we can count on
To be always on our side.”

6. “That Man is a Success” by Robert Louis Stevenson

We love this poem by the author of Treasure Island. It describes a successful man — not by how much money he made or fame he achieved. Instead, a successful individual is someone who “lived well, laughed often and loved much.” If this describes your dad, you will surely appreciate this poem.

7. “Only a Dad” by Edgar Albert Guest

We love the poem “Only a Dad.” Guest describes a hard-working dad who gives it all for his family. The poem ends with the following stanza:

“Only a dad, but he gives his all
To smooth the way for his children small,
Doing, with courage stern and grim,
The deeds that his father did for him.
This is the line that for him I pen,
Only a dad, but the best of men.”

8. “Talking to Grief” by Denise Levertov

This is one of our favorite poems about grief. However, it might not be the best choice to share at a funeral. The poem compares grief to taking in a homeless dog. Sounds strange? The analogy works beautifully. Read the poem in its entirety before you pass judgment.

9. “Ice” by Mary Oliver

Are you going through your father’s things? The speaker in this poem describes her need to “save everything” her dad left behind, including multiple pairs of ice grips.

Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father to Share When You’re Missing Him

Whether you are facing your first Father’s Day without your dad or the twenty-first, here are some poems to read or share when you are missing him.

10. “On the Beach At Night Alone” by Walt Whitman

A loved one’s death often spurs us to think about the big picture — the meaning of life. This is a poem to read when you’re reflecting on life’s meaning. Whitman describes is this way in the last two lines of this poem:

“This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them."

11. “Daddy’s Hands” by Holly Dunn

This bittersweet poem/song describes the hands of a hardworking man. Perhaps, you too, had a dad whose hands were calloused from work. If so, this poem will speak to you.

“I remember Daddy´s hands, working 'til they bled.
Sacrificed unselfishly, just to keep us all fed.”

12. “Never More Will the Wind” by Hilda Doolittle

This poem begins, “Never more will the wind cherish you again.” If you and your dad spent a lot of time outside, you may feel a connection to this verse.

13. “Away” by James Whitcomb Riley

It may be too hard to think of your father as “deceased.” Instead, it might help to think of him as “away.” This poem describes that thought process as well as describing a life well lived.

14. “When Great Trees Fall” by Maya Angelou

While Angelou is said to have written this poem following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., it describes the impact that is felt upon the loss of a magnificent life. Please take time to read the entirety of this poem. However, here’s the final heartfelt stanza:

“And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us:
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”

Short Poems From a Daughter to a Deceased Father to Share on Social Media

Your friends may avoid bringing up the topic of your father’s death to not upset you. How, then, do you let them know that you need their support? Consider posting a short poem about death and grief on your social media account.

15. “Do Not Go Gentle Into the Night” by Dylan Thomas

This poem may be too gut-wrenching to endure, especially if your father is currently fighting for his life. This famous poem begins with the following stanza:

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

16. “Death Is Nothing At All” by Henry Scott Holland

This title of this famous funeral poem may sound flippant. However, it is a description of death for those who believe that we will see our loved ones again in the afterlife. It begins:

“Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.”

The poem ends:

“One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!”

17. Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye

Was your dad the type of person who felt the most alive when spending time in nature? Then this poem would make a beautiful tribute to your deceased dad. Here’s how this famous funeral poem begins:

“Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.”

18. “Remember” by Christina Rosetti

This is another famous funeral poem written from the perspective of the deceased. The deceased leaves behind instructions asking to be remembered fondly, but only if doing so doesn’t cause sorrow. The following two lines explains the message of the poem:

“Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.”

19. “To My Father” by Georgia Harkness

This poem is similar to the one by Maya Angelou on our list. However, while Angelou wrote her poem about Martin Luther King, Jr, the title of this one may speak to you.

Like Angelou’s poem, a great tree personifies the life of a great man. And when it falls or dies, we feel the reverberation for miles. The poem ends:

“Its towering arms a landmark stood, erect and unafraid,
As if to say, “Fear nought from life’s alarms”.
It fell one day.
Where it had dauntless stood was loneliness and void.
But men who passed paid tribute – and said,

“To know this life was good,
It left its mark on me. Its work stands fast”.
And so it lives. Such life no bonds can hold –
This giant pine, magnificent and old.”

Support Can Come From Strangers

You may feel alone in your grief. Perhaps none of your friends have lost a close family member. They may not know what to say to you or how to help, at no fault of their own.

However, you may receive comfort and support from the words offered by these poets. Even poems written a century ago can make you feel you aren’t the only one to suffer from this type of loss.