FICTION ADAPTATION: Research into Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep & Mary Elizabeth Frye

Mary Elizabeth Frye
- Born 1905 in Dayton, Ohio
- Orphaned at the age of 3
- Became a florist and housewife
- Known for the single poem - Do not stand at my grave and weep
- Did write other poetry but never published
- The sonnet remained anonymous until the late 90's when Frye claimed authorship
- Frye never copyrighted the sonnet as she said it belonged to the world: "I thought it belonged to the world; it didn't belong to me. I still feel that way … it was written out of love, for comfort. If I took money for it, it would lose its value ... maybe I'm a nut."

Why did she write the sonnet?
She wrote the poem in 1932 specifically for a young German Jewish girl (Margaret Schwarzkopf) who lived with Frye. She was worried about her mother who lived back in Germany. Schwarzkopf had been told not to return to Germany because of the increasing unrest (especially against Jewish communities). When her mother died, Schwarzkopf told Frye that she was sad that she could not go to her mother's grave which then prompted Frye to write the poem.

In 1939, the US Congress published the poem for the United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Service - it resonated with every reader who had lost a loved one. It has severed to comfort not only the young girl it was originally written for but also to every reader who has lost a loved one.

Analysis of the sonnet:

To gain a better understanding of the sonnet, I decided to analyse it and pick out the important features. I thought that I could then use this to add to my ideas.

The main findings from analysing the poem:

- firstly, the sonnet is actually 12 lines instead of the traditional 14 lines
- it is written in loose iambic tetrameter
- the imperatives give the sonnet a tone of authority
- the lines describing nature have softer, more consoling sounds
- a lot of natural imagery
- the beginning and end of the sonnet are almost parallel
- the voice of the poem is coming from beyond the grave
- tone of comfort and reassurance

How this has inspired my adaptation:

- the iambic tetrameter gives the sonnet a steady rhythm - I think it would be nice to carry over this steady rhythm into my adaptation by including some rhythmic montage. I have an idea of following characters so it would be quite effective to time this to some non dietetic music.

- because of the tone of authority, I would like my main character to be commanding (even if it isn't in an obvious way). In my developed project proposal, I would now like to have two characters (a boyfriend and a girlfriend) one of which has passed away (the girlfriend). She will then entice / pull the other character through different locations - she has control over him.

- I want to include a lot of imagery and sounds of nature - the majority of the settings for my adaptation will be out in nature and will take inspiration from the imagery described in the sonnet.

- I would like the beginning and end to be parallel to mirror the sonnet. This could mean starting and ending in the same location e.g. the country lane.


Analysing and picking apart the sonnet has definitely helped me to develop my ideas. My first project proposal was very vague and didn't have a lot of direction or a narrative structure. However, after analysing the sonnet, I feel I have come up with a clearer narrative arc which is inspired by the sonnet but isn't too 'on the nose'.