Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

"Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave" by Thomas Hardy (1913)

This satire of the Graveyard School poets also depicts a conversation between a departed soul and a graveside visitor, but one with a very different mood.

"To Autumn" by John Keats (1819)

Many overlapping images connect Keats’ poem to “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep,” along with the themes of immortality and transformation. Wind, grain, and especially birds contribute to mood and supply metaphors in both poems. Both poems close with circling birds, collecting before migration. Keats’ poem also enjoyed massive popularity; for many years, it was anthologized more times than any other poem in English.

"The Leash" by Ada Limon (2018)

Ada Limon’s direct-address, incantatory poem also repudiates death with perpetual motion and natural images.

"A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" by Dylan Thomas (1937)

Although “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” might be the more obvious connection from this poet, Dylan Thomas uses some of the same images as “Do Not Go to My Grave and Weep” in this work. In this poem, though, darkness takes over light, and the movement—from “tumbling” in Line 6 to the “deep” of Line 19—spirals downward.