For November / May · 3 poems & readings

Remembrance & Memorial Poems

In Flanders fields and after: the poems read at remembrance services and gravesides, honouring those who served — and short readings for a headstone or an order of service.

Remembrance readings have a settled repertoire, and it exists because these poems were built to be spoken aloud to a crowd standing outdoors. John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields' is the centrepiece — written in 1915 by a Canadian medical officer, it is the reason the poppy means what it means, and it hands the duty of remembering directly to the listener.

For a graveside, a headstone, or a short order of service, three shorter pieces do more work than a long one. Christina Rossetti's 'Remember' gives permission to grieve and then to stop grieving, which is often the kindest thing a reading can do. Stevenson's 'Requiem' is eight lines and supplies its own epitaph — "Home is the sailor, home from sea." Whitman's 'O Captain! My Captain!' suits a service for someone who led. Read slowly, and print the text for people to follow; grief makes listening hard.