A poem that is used at many a funeral to bring comfort to the hearers that their loved one hasn’t died is called “Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep”. It states:
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 that glints in the snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift up lifting 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. ---- Mary E. Frye.
The author is creating for the reader an image of how death isn’t really final. That the one who has died is in fact not dead at all instead they are everywhere, that the soul has transcended the physical body and can be anywhere or anything. For as the author states “Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die”.
It is a common
Cited: Beecher, Henry Ward. (http:/www.borrowedtyme.com/quotes.html). Christian Beliefs (2002-2011) July 15, 2011. “Eternal”. Encyclopedia of Religion Vol. 5, 1987 http://bible.cc/revelation/21-4.htm Plantinga jr., Cornelius. Engaging God’s World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 6-7.