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Do not stand at my grave and weep
Do not stand at my grave and weep is apoem written in 1932 by
Mary Elizabeth Frye. Althoughthe origin of the poem was disputed
until later in her life, Mary Frye's authorship was confirmed
in 1998 after research by Abigail Van Buren, a newspaper
columnist.[1]
Full text
Do not stand at my grave and weepI am not there. I do not
sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on 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 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.
Origins
Mary Frye, who was living in Chicago at the time, wrote the poem
in 1932. She had never
written any poetry, but the plight of a young German Jewish
woman, Margaret Schwarzkopf,
who was staying with her and her husband, inspired the poem. She
wrote it down on a brownpaper shopping bag. Margaret Schwarzkopf
had been concerned about her mother, who was ill in
Germany, but she had been warned not to return home because of
increasing anti-Semitic unrest.When her mother died, the
heartbroken young woman told Frye that she never had the chance
to
stand by my mothers grave and shed a tear. Frye found herself
composing a piece of verse on
a brown paper shopping bag. Later she said that the words just
came to her and expressed what
she felt about life and death.[1] Mary Frye circulated the poem
privately. Because she neverpublished or copyrighted it, there is
no definitive version. She wrote other poems, but this, her
first, endured. Her obituary in The Times made it clear that she
was the author of the famous
poem, which has been recited at funerals and on other
appropriate occasions around the world forseventy years.[2]
The poem was introduced to many in Britain when it was read by
the father of a soldier killed by
a bomb in Northern Ireland. The soldier's father read the poem
on BBC radio in 1995 in
remembrance of his son, having been left it in an envelope
addressed 'To all my loved ones' inhis personal effects. The
authorship of the poem was established a few years later after
an
investigation by journalist Abigail Van Buren. There is a short
illustrated book of the poem
sometimes to be found in small-town bookshops with ink drawings
for each line that includes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_Fryehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Van_Burenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-timesobit-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-timesobit-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-timesobit-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_Fryehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Van_Burenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-timesobit-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-timesobit-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poem
