The famous poem often read at funerals is written from the perspective of a recently deceased individual. The poem is written in a paired rhyme format and consists only of 12 lines.
It starts in the first two lines by telling the audience, composed of those that attend the funeral, to not cry next to the grave, as the deceased is not really there. The next eight lines are filled with six distinct metaphors describing what the deceased is instead. The first one refers to the wind, giving a picture of peaceful freedom. The second one refers to the reflection of light on freshly fallen snow, while the third one describes the sensation of light on a sheaf of grain. The fourth one speaks of a gentle rain in the fall.
The fifth metaphor is the longest one and directly ensures the audience that the deceased is there with them in the shape of the updraft that helps birds take flight in the early hours. The final one references the light of stars during the night. The final two lines reiterate the beginning of the poem and end with the notion that the individual is not really dead.
