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"Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep" Print E-mail
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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 sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings 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.


- Author unknown

Commonly attributed to several authors ~

Note: *The poem, "Do not Stand at my Grave and Weep" was left in an envelope for his parents — a soldier by the name of Stephens Cummins who at the age of 24 was killed on active service in Nothern Ireland, when a mine blew up an armoured car near Londonderry — to be opened in the event of his death. The poem alludes to those mourning a loved one, and was read in 1995, on the BBC TV on Remembrance Day by Mr Cummins' father. Many assumed at first that the soldier had written it, but later this proved to be false.

Since then, the true origin still remains a mystery but, there are several authors that claim authorship:
Mary Frye — Gwydion Penderwen — Joyce Fossen — Albert Spengler

It has been read at memorials repeatedly over the years, ie.,: various celebrities, and the five astronauts who died in the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

This poem is hailed in the press as "the most requested poem in the English language in the past 60 years" and "the poem that takes the nation by storm."



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