“Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Summary

“Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Themes

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  Death, Transformation, and Immortality

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)”

• Lines 1-4

  Do not stand
  By my grave, and weep.
  I am not there,
  I do not sleep—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  I am the thousand winds that blow
  I am the diamond glints in snow
  I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
  I am the gentle, autumn rain.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-11

  As you awake with morning's hush,
  I am the swift, up-flinging rush
  Of quiet birds in circling flight,

  

  

  

  

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• Line 12

  I am the day transcending night.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  Do not stand
  By my grave, and cry—
  I am not there,
  I did not die.

  

  

  

  

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“Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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“Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Diamond glints
• Swift
• Up-flinging rush
• Transcending

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Speaker

“Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)”

More “Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Reading of the Poem — Listen to a slightly different version of the poem read aloud. 

  • The First Publication of the Poem — View the issue of The Gypsy in which "Immortality" was first printed. 

  • The Mysterious Origins of "Immortality" — An article about the poem's contested authorship.

  • Who Was Clare Harner? — A whole blog dedicated to Clare Harner, the Kansas journalist to whom authorship of the poem was attributed in 1934.